[AT] here I go again

[Ron Cook]

Charlie,
     Not much finish left on the little thing.  Someone did get a nice 
red oxide primer coat on the hood and oil cap and painted the front 
wheels black for some reason.  That is as far as they got.  A proper 
paint job and the right decals, and it will be a right foxy looking 
little tractor.  But, that isn't happening anytime soon.
     One row at a time and it is easy to see how these little tractors 
have mostly been "used up".  A tremendous amount of hours consumed in 
the seat, as you say.  A two-row outfit would get the same work done in 
almost, but not quite, half the time.  I think the little tractors were 
replacing a mule and was a big step up.  Here, the Regular replaced a 
team of horses in the twenties and thirties. Two rows.  Larger 
farmsteads and different crops.  The little tractors were chore tractors 
and mostly consisted of N Fords.  My Granddad did quite a bit of farming 
with a 9 N, but it was pretty much used up by the time it was 10 years 
old, and it had a Regular, an M, and a John Deere B helping it.  A dairy 
farm with about 400 acres of crop.  All those hours finished off my 
Granddad by the time he was 63, too.  Died right beside that Ford 
getting it ready to go to the field for another day of cultivating.

Ron Cook
Salix, IA
On 7/29/2014 7:58 PM, charlie hill wrote:
> Not seeing the tractor, I didn't know if it had an earlier "restoration"
> that
> might have the wrong decals.  Sounds like you have it figured out.  I've
> been
> around A's and Super A's all of my life but when that one was new I was
> almost
> new myself and don't remember the details.  I don't know where Al Jones is
> lately.
> He's the ATIS, small farmall expert.  I'm pretty sure he could tell you
> about the history
> of the shafts.
>
> You are right, tending big acreage one row at a time won't work today but
> you'd be
> surprised what we did with one row tractors in the S/E tobacco country.  My
> dad and
> I tended about 50 acres one year with a D-10 Allis with a 2 bottom 14" plow
> and a 16
> blade disc harrow.  We spent a lot of time in the seat.   One of my friends
> was the
> youngest son of a tenant farmer.  He had a Super A and a completely worn out
> A.
> They tended close to 100 acres including about about 15 acres of tobacco.
> When it was
> time to break the tobacco ground with the bottom plows they worked in
> shifts, 24 hours a
> day until it was done.  The old man and 3 sons on two tractors.  The cost of
> fuel and labor
> would make that impossible now particularly with gasoline powered tractors.
>
> Charlie
>
>