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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Clearly the combination of
consolidation of manufacturers, John Deere's forcing of
consolidation into dealership groups, declined farm profitability,
larger farms, larger machinery have all decreased the amount of
dealerships that still exist here in California too. In our
county/valley , in the peak time in the 1930s/1940s, there were
Caterpillar, Oliver, Allis Chalmers, IH, Cletrac, Ford, Case, not
near but also John Deere and Massey Harris dealers. By the time I
began farming in 1974, the only remaining dealers in our county
were Ford and Allis-Chalmers and over in Santa Clara County there
were still IH, Caterpillar, Ford and Massey-Ferguson. <br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"> As I have noted over the years,
the Salinas Valley in the 1940s to 1960s was serious Oliver
country because of the superior cultivating Tractors, Caterpillars
for working soil and in the southern part of the valley
Allis-Chalmers was pretty common, with a lot of IH too. John Deere
was around, but not a large number of units until the 1980s
really. New Holland and Hesston (owned by Oliver for quite a few
years) were the main hay balers sold in the 1960s onward.</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"> Today, there are no farm equipment
dealers left in out county or Santa Clara County. This is driven
both by suburbanization and fewer farmers. In the Salinas Valley,
there are New Holland, Caterpillar / Challenger / Massey Ferguson
(Agco), John Deere, a new CaseIH dealer of a huge group and that
is it. Interestingly the John Deere dealership that was bought by
RDO, has competition from the family owned operation further down
the coast and they do about the same amount of service and sell
almost as many units as the Salinas brick and mortar (or rather
steel building lol) RDO store. The result of all of this is that
most of the newer tractors are John Deere, MF / Challenger and New
Holland. CaseIH is somewhat of an also-ran with most of the units
from out of area.</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"> An added note, Minneapolis-Moline
never had a dealership in this area and Case barely sold anything
that was not construction equipment prior to Tenneco purchasing
IH. Cletrac sold a few units in the 20s/30s to the orchards, but
never the larger tractors and Oliver OC-6s accounted for most of
the crawler sales. They were VERY popular in the 50s/60s for
winter vegetable planting and bed working. I wish I had one of
them.... That is on my antique tractor "bucket list" with 80"
tracks like nearly all were here.</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"> Grant Brians -
Hollister,California farmer</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 5/19/2019 12:39 PM, Indiana Robinson
wrote:<br>
</div>
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<div>James' mention of the Oliver models got me thinking
(again) about the numerous dealerships we used to have in my
county (Shelby County Indiana). We are not a big county, 17
miles by 24 miles, still mostly rural.</div>
<div>In my period of reasonable memory (late 1940's through the
1950's and at least part of the 1960's we had quite a few
tractor dealerships. Several were fairly large and progressive
and quite a few more were car and truck repair garages that
had a few new tractors on display and could get you about
anything you needed fairly quickly through the dealer network.
Most had a decent supply of common parts and had access to
other parts if needed.</div>
<div>I'll probably miss somebody but I recall:</div>
<div>One progressive John Deere dealer</div>
<div>Two progressive IHC dealers</div>
<div>One progressive Allis Chalmers dealer</div>
<div>One progressive Minneapolis Moline</div>
<div>One repair garage type Minneapolis Moline dealer</div>
<div>One progressive Oliver dealer (actually the father of one
of my son-in-laws)</div>
<div>One repair garage type Oliver dealer</div>
<div>One progressive Case dealer who later shifted to Massey
Ferguson</div>
<div>One progressive Ford dealer</div>
<div>One Ford dealer who was also a Ford car dealership</div>
<div>One repair garage type Ford dealer.</div>
<div>One progressive Ferguson dealer</div>
<div>One progressive Co-op dealer</div>
<div>The Custom tractor factory used to be here and they sold
some direct</div>
<div>Co-op used to have a factory here but only produced
implements</div>
<div>There were a few others just outside of the county lines,
one was Silver King. I always liked Silver Kings...<br>
</div>
<div>Then for many years there were no new tractor dealers here
at all... The closest we have is that about last month the
local Rural King farm store brought in maybe ten new tractors
made by ??? I believe they are branded as "RK" ???</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The division between what I call "progressive dealers" and
"repair garage type" dealers is at best a fuzzy line but I
think most can understand the attempted division. :-) Most
of the garage type were scattered around in various villages
around the county<br>
</div>
<div>I believe that all of them were in business all through the
1950's except for the Custom and Silver King who ceased
production.</div>
<div>The Ford car / truck / tractor dealership did well on cars
and trucks but was almost a hidden dealer on tractor stuff
after the 8N's. There were common reports of a lot of shaky
dealing there on farm stuff during WW-II. Supplies were short
but money talked...<br>
</div>
<div>I have always thought of the 1950's as kind of the golden
years...<br>
</div>
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<div>.<br>
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<div>-- <br>
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"
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<div>-- <br>
<br>
Francis Robinson<br>
aka "farmer"<br>
Central Indiana USA<br>
<a href="mailto:robinson46176@gmail.com" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">robinson46176@gmail.com</a><br>
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