This may be one the greatest pieces of history I have ever found archived on TH-cam. To the poster that uploaded this I want to give a big thanks to you!
Appreciate that. The film has been in the family for a century and has been converted to DVD about 20 years ago. I figured this was the best way to keep it.
@@blessed7fold it was my great grandfather's farm, Frank Moses Busha (pronounce Boo Shay). My grandmother's sister Florence (my great aunt?) is the one milking the cow. Evidently my great grandparents liked to square dance, Henry and Clara Ford were also in the group and asked my great grandfather if they could use his farm to film the commercial. The farm was between 7 and 8 Mile roads just outside of Detroit, which is now inside Detroit.
@@JefSmith That is incredible! You own one of the oldest and most precious pieces of tractor history and the fact that your own ancestors are a part of it is amazing. You should feel very proud. Ford tractors are the best tractors there ever was! I have a late 60's model Ford 3000 that by logic should not be running anymore but that tractor fires up with first turn of the key every time. Nobody built tractors like Ford.
I loved that Hay Bailer part. I bailed hay in Missouri in the mid 50s with an old guy that had that exact model machine. Had to watch that plunger when you forked the hay in the opening. We would put a block of wood in each time to separate the bails. And had to keep the bailing wire done just right. That was the owner's job. Good old Gib Williams.
It's mind boggling to think that just 50 years after this tractor commercial was produced, we were getting ready to... GO TO THE MOON! The technological progress over the last 100+ years is unlike anything mankind has ever witnessed in its entirety.
@@coloradostrong The hard work of thousands made it happen including input from the Russians. Do you really think if we faked it, they would've kept it a secret all these decades.. Good thing scientific progress doesn't rely on the internet peanut gallery to decide what's real or not.
On Father’s Day today I’m thinking of my own dad. Born Aug 4 1900. He shall all this change in his life time. He all most lived to see man land on the moon in 1969. Just few more weeks and he would had. He was quit a man. Way different in most ways from todays men. Now I’m old and have lost my children. Buried them. But my grands are my lights. They shine Bright
If you see this reply Allen I greatly respect the men like your father who built what we have today, and I agree that today's men including myself are much softer. We're been spoiled by an easy life of being given everything from the previous generations that sacrificed today for a better tomorrow. I'm sorry to hear that you had to bury your children. Nothing anyone says can make that easier, yet I hope you can find some solace in seeing their children grow. Not everyone has that opportunity. I've seen many of my relatives grow old and die alone without any children of their own and it is heartbreaking to watch.
When I briefly worked for a Ford tractor dealership, we had a Fordson tractor, that we occasionally drove around the place. It was crude, but still fun.
I believe they need to bring farming and agriculture classes back into schools I know there are some that have them but there definitely needs to be more.
My dad plowed with horses and mules during the depression and then a steel wheeled fordson was their first tractor. He passed away about 3 years ago. After ww2 he did tire sales and then book keeping for heavy construction and mining. He always lived as if the depression may reocure saving his money only buying what was needed. He died a multi millionaire. Also my mother worked and saved so the two of them made this possible.
Your father was the old school breed when it came to handling money. Buy what you NEED. When you went through the Great Depression, it was natural to feel there could be another right around the corner. And that was a very frightening prospect.
@@BuzzLOLOL 20 years is one generation. Every generation needs to find out for itself that if you spend everything you can see and go into debt over your head all the time, eventually things turn bad.
@@lwilton - 33 years is usually considered a 'generation'... the ultra rich manipulate the economy and profit from good and bad times by knowing in advance when good or bad is going to occur... they sell high at the peak of good and buy back at the bottom of low...
Ford was involved in a lawsuit sort of regarding this, these tractors had a tendency to flip over backwards when plowing and hitting a large tree root. Later models have large fenders to prevent tipping over backwards
Great video, nothing has really changed in a 100 years, everything that farmer was going through, we're still going through it today, just different numbers.
that guy with only his plow owed no one for anything he had could operate off of his own seed and live stock indefinitely and pass that infrastructure to his kids who could do the same. this was not an add for equipment they were selling debts and this was the first nick in the death from a thousand cuts that agriculture finds its self facing these days. not saying that tractors were not the boon to farmers that they obviously can be BUT it was actually the loans and the debt that were being marketed here and going to their wives in that way was LOW very VERY low and keep in mind that this advertisement was shown in a public theater to live audiences full of farmers who are sitting next to their wives and their neighbors who all know who owns tractors and who does not.....if you were out on a date night with your wife and you were "That Guy"? yeah you were NOT getting any when you get home after that date and your life would be a living hell until that woman could go to her knitting circle and tall them all about the new tractor that you just bought and how expensive it was.
@@kevint1910 Nice to see somebody who gets it. The "lords" of the Old World lost their power when the New World was discovered and people could make a life for themselves. They have been fighting to get it back ever since, and have succeeded to the point where most people don't even realize they are essentially slaves.
@@kevint1910 -- I agree with what you say, however you forgot one thing. As more and more farmers bought tractors, food production went up and the cost of food went down, including the cost of labor. This put pressure on the traditional farmer without a tractor. Over time they had no choice but to buy. Couple that with the advent of deep well drilling and dam building in the 1930's, we experienced an agricultural boom the likes of which we've never seen before.
Plus the fact that the worm gear rear end delivered a lot of power to the ground. The problem wasn’t lack of power to pull a plow that size the problem was it delivered so much power, when the plow hooked a rock or root the damn thing would rear up, flop on it’s back and crush the driver before he could stop it. The Fordson tractor’s only redeeming factor was it was cheap so nearly anyone could afford them.
An old-timer told me that those old Fordson tractors were terrible. First, they were very hard to start on a cold morning. Owners would drain the oil at night and take it into the kitchen and put it under the stove so in the morning it would be warm. Some farmers lit a fire under the oil pan in the morning to make the tractor easier to start.
That was pretty typical for any tractor at the time not just the Fordson. My grandfather would put coals under the model T Ford car he had in the winter as well. Also drain the water from the radiator in the winter as well.
Nice to see that they are very capable of pulling 3 furrows at pace rather than pussyfooting about with 1 or 2 furrows at vintage ploughing demos. Regards from the UK 🇬🇧
I think they may be taking it easy as many of the parts are now discontinued lol. Check this thing out - 44 bottom plow being pulled by a steam tractor th-cam.com/video/5xDj45zF-l0/w-d-xo.html
My grandfather was traveling USA and Canada in those days servicing Minneapolis-Moline tractors... met GrandMa in Canada and moved her to USA... she had earlier moved from Ireland... he said when that flaming red hair came around the corner of a building, he was hooked... In 1850 NYCity planners estimated that by 1950 there would be so many horses the city would be buried under 100 feet of manure yearly if they didn't keep it hauled away... Ancestors on father's side came with Peter Stuyvesant to set up New Amsterdam... ---> NYCity... supposedly they were impressed sailors and had to jump ship and swim ashore to do that... we ended up with towns in Michigan and Arkansas with our last name... Michigan one is our branch... by strange coincidence my exwife grew up in Arkansas one...
I was born in '54 and my dad still had a team, more nostalgic than anything I guess but, we would take them and a sleigh to the woods and cut firewood for the house.
Those tedders they showed turning over wet hay, are absolutely vicious, the womenfolk wouldn’t let us kids within a hundred yards of the damn thing once it was hooked up.
My Grandfather worked with horses growing up on the farm back during the early 1920s. He bought a new John Deere A in 1945, my Dad said he loved that tractor after working with horses. I love horses, but they are really high maintenance animals.
At 2:19 we read that Jones didn't have a cent. Bought all up-to-date farm equipment and prospered. I guess "Jones" mortgaged the farm to the limit, bought stuff with no money down and got lucky with the weather, pests, health, etc. The film then claims the user could turn over a weedy field and drill it (seed drill) the same day. I'm skeptical. Seems time would be needed to decompose the vegetation, esp. for thick grass or tough weed stalks. But besides my quibbles, I really enjoyed this film. Thanks for posting it.
Yeah it shows that the commercial makers don't know how to farm. Even back then. Decades ago I bought an 8N. My nieghbor was an old guy. I plowed my field and planted it. He laughs at me. All that grew was grass. One day I was talking with him. And he told me. You plow the field in autumn. So the weed decomposs over winter. Then in spring. Plow it again and plant..
Many times out of the modern day jobsite, we used bulldozers, and hydraulic excavators. I often think of our fore fathers and not only what they had to work with, but what they would think if they saw how we do it now.
I’m having a blast watching this old ad on my hand held phone on my couch in my living room….. but that makes me wonder, how was this advertising making it to any potential customers on farms in 1917 🤔 I imagine catching a movie in town wasn’t a regular outing for farmers 🤷♂️
People struggled alot more ,way back then .In my opinion, those had to be simpler times. People had values and the basics of life was what was important. They did not have social media ,TV and the luxuries we do today .Social media has definitely caused a rift in society. God and family was important. As a society, l feel we lost our way .
Then there was a drought and he couldn’t make the payments and lost his tractor and farm that he put up as collateral and the man at the bank (the same bank that owned the tractor factory)was happy and the farmer and his family were homeless.
YOU FORGOT THE CRA in CANADA ,AKA rabid dogs with no feeling just greed and MORE GREED . Believe me I know I am not a farmer but had a taste of their methods years ago . Got 3 heart attacks to prove it and they go the rest the s o bs !
The rapid mechanization of the 20s helped lead to the agricultural economic collapse of the 30s. They broke new land from the Dakotas to Texas, and buried the country in grain. Then the depression and the dust bowl years began.
That's it, it's settled! I'm trading in my 2016 Deere for a 1917 Fordson! It's the only way I'll be able to make my Wife happy and keep my Son from running off to the Big City!
@@stevebell4906 Pretty sure by the time you'd seen it half a dozen times your attention span might have decreased somewhat 😁. But it is a nice story, it's bit like an episode of little house on the prairie 🥰
@@Altair885 This WASN'T MADE As A Shot TV Commercial. It Was A Ford Sales Promotion, Likely Shown At A Theater, Or At A Pre Advertised Farmers Social Meeting, When Discussing Farming Methods, Crop Information Or Other Farm Related Issues For An Evening. Get OUT Of Your Modern Day Mentality Buckwheat...
I’m going to listen to my wife and son and daughter and buy a good used John Deere round baler cotton stripper for $600,000 dollars so I can finally prosper. Oh what’s that son, you’ll move to town unless I buy a new one? You’re right genius, the key to successful farming is spend lots of money on sales pitches.
Cool video, just remember this was shot with a slower speed camera, so everything is moving twice as fast! Just saying, they weren't pulling those plows as fast as it looks.
Farmers went in debt for a farm and tractor, then Great Depression of 1929 hit and they lost everything... My Dad made a tractor out of a 1928 Chevy for his Dad to farm with after that...
When I was a kid my grandfather showed me a picture of a tractor he built in the late 30s it had a ford flathead V8 with a semi truck rear end. The frame was made with heavy c Chanel.
@@jasonbrown7258 - Similar to what my Dad built... Chevy 4 banger with 35 HP, huge power for a tractor in those days, it's 3 speed tranny plus a truck 4 speed tranny behind it, semi rear end, military traction tires, some kind of tractor front axle/tires... 13 speeds forward and 7 in reverse... also too fast for a tractor...
@@jasonbrown7258 ... we called them doodle bugs, everybody was building them back during World War II as a backup when their tractor went down. Parts were very scarce during World War one and World War II.
This video precisely details what triggered The Great Migration. Prior to the Fordson and other gasoline fueled tractors, Men and mules did all of the farming. One man, one or two mules. Steam tractors took a lot of men to operate and were used mostly on flat land. One Fordson could do the work of ten men with mules or other draft animal. This was instantly appealing to the larger land owners. Former slave families and poor white families were tenant farmers. They did not own the land they farmed. The land belonged to the landlord who bought Fordsons to replace human labor. The sharecroppers and tenant farmers were evicted. This was prior to the great depression. Concurrently, manufacturing was growing exponentially in the north. African Americans and poor landless whites traveled to the Great Lakes region and the industrial northeast. Now, the descendants of those farmers, miners, and fisherman are no longer needed in a hyper mechanized world.
It took them way too long to figure out you had to attach the drawbar under the belly and ahead of the rear axle to prevent that. Harry Ferguson had Fordsons so equipped, but Ford chose to stop building Fordsons.
In the TV Series, the tractor was called a Hoyt Clagwell Tractor, however, the tractor actually used, were two different tractors. A John Deere "GP" was used in the opening, and the tractor used during the rest of the show was actually a Fordson model tractor.
It's VERY UNLIKELY that this is a 1917 Fordson model F tractor as there was only ONE built that year, most likely a test model. Only 260 were built the next year, but in 1919 over 34,000 were built. Most likely it was a 1919 model shown.
TV's Didn't Come Along Until 30-YEARS Later Kiddo. And It's NOT A Commercial Made For One Either. It Was Produced To Show A Farmer HOW To Make His Job And Life Easier And More Productive With Automation. Starting With A Machine That Was FAR Superior To Using Horses. You Sound Like One Of These Ignorant KIDS That We Call "Young And Dumb", And Probably Wouldn't Last Very Long Living In Those Days Either...
This film would have been shown at movie theaters located in rural farming towns. The old-time farmers probably wouldn't have wasted any money going to the newfangled moving pictures back then, so most of them probably never saw this "commercial".... But their children likely did....
It shared design elements like the "T" but was a different engine in that it was constructed to be part of the tractors whole frame which I'm sure the T's block could not handle. It was probably a larger displacement engine and it was designed to run on kerosene after getting it started on gasoline. When I was a young boy, I watched as my father worked some of our 80 acre farm with an older Fordson that had been converted to rubber tires. It was also distinctive having a Buick inline 6 engine grafted in place of the original Fordson, who did that I don't know. When I grew up, I used to drive the tractor pulling a hay wagon and take the hay to our barn, central Kansas. I think the tractor came with the farm my parents purchased in 1942 and my dad wasn't particularly fond of the Buick conversion though it worked quite well.
See, tractor has no frame. The geniusness, of Mr Henry Ford. Having the engine, transmission and rear axle , AS THE FRAME. Unlike today, where funtionality and LOGICAL practicality, gave way to computerized, very unaffordable tools, farmers' require, TO FEED THOSE SAME PEOPLE ! We've progressed backwards, again.......every 3rd generation.
WHY Would ANYBODY Want An Orange Colored Tractor??? It Would Remind People Of The Orange Face Menace We Had Running This Country Backwards For 4-Years. Red, Green And Blue Are The Popular Tractor Colors In My Part Of The Country...
Hilarious advertising for a tractor. Everything is speeded up x2. Even mammy is beating the daylights out of her washtub. If daddy was so poor, he still managed to buy a lot of machines and land in a short time 😃😃😃
Back than camera were manually handcranked so the speed was always inconsistent, and the frame rate of old film was about 24 frames per second. Video is about 30 frames per second.
@@farmerpete0768 After WW1, the prairies were plowed from the Dakotas to Texas, it turned out that was perhaps not the best idea, at least not how they did it.
@@curtisparr7064 ...I used to drive a 7610 spraying hilly fields ... that was a brake pedal steering for 50% of the day .... but Curtis , those early fordsons were notorious for standing up .... the pulling point was too low .... the main reason that they put very wide and long mudguards were that the mudguards would stop it from coming right over on the driver !! I have my dad's fordson n still ....He had vintage tractors of almost every make but the green girl was always 'mine ' .... Everything else went off to good homes but she stays with me
how did he buy new machinery if he didn’t have a cent? Oh, right, he borrowed the money from the bank and when the economics went the wrong way the bank owned the farm and the farmer had nothing.
Farmers in the early 1900s were demanding to be let into the financial system, as they felt they were being held back. The early builders of farm equipment found they had to finance their customers in order to sell their products, because the bankers would not. It came to a head in 1929, and again in the early 80s.
And now John Deere is bringing AI and remote controlled equipment to the farming industry. Soon the "family" farm will be adsorbed by the corporate world.
That was a time when a farmer could make a living with 40 acers . The tractor did two things . One at first it made farming easier yes , It made it faster . It also made GREED . More production the lower the cost of finished product . Be it corn or wheat or beans . So the poor old farmer that used the horse and plow and went to the tractor did not get too far in making more money just have to farm more land to make the same amount of money . The farmer investment went right straight to the Bank and stayed right there . The seed went up in cost and the tractor . The good old hard working farmer went to the way side . Buy 1980 the poor old farmer went broke . One by one they lost their farms to Auctions and a new farming started . Corporation farming began . Thanks to Ronald Raegan . Farmers dont even own the land and the ones that still do is just squeaking by there teeth . A lot of farms now is owned by people that dont even live in this country . Reagan and the republican party made dam sure of that . It's there personal investment . They play the stock market and run it . Sure they are going to protect that . GREED once again .
Well, greed existed for several millennia before the tractor & modern banking was invented. While your general outline of " progress" is roughly correct, it's pretty loose with facts. Most American farms & farmland are still owned by farm families, many retired or second generation, others still operate their own farmland. I began my farming career the same year Reagan was elected, and am still going. Have friends & acquaintances that have experienced every possible outcome from absolute failure to prospering... Our Amish farmers still don't own tractors & experience the same range of outcomes: failure to relative prosperity.
@@davidkottman3440 As everyone continues fighting this dumb ass republican democrat bs distraction the globalists are planning to take away fossil fuel completely. How much farming is going to get done without diesel fuel? I'd suggest a massive reduction in both food and population are underway as they now undermine the very energy source that got us here and sustain us to this day.
It was FDR that said no field should be larger than 40 acres.. the reason farms turn into corporations is because the Democrats Estate tax or "death tax" So farms are 2 to 3000 acres now. Got 2 million in equipment and are forced to operate like a business. 1000 acres of corn is 175000 bushels at Harvest. Or plant winter wheat harvest that bale the state sell that and plant soybeans.
This commercial has convinced me. I'm going to the Fordson dealer tomorrow!!
Your daughter will thank you for it.
I must admit that tractor was turning some nice rows.
I just left there.
They are sold out.
Can't get computer chips.🤣
@@quees1521 -- Dang, back to the horse and plow.......
@@quees1521 No electronics in that tractor. Not sure if it even had an electrical system at all. probably hand crank started & diesel, No spark plugs.
This may be one the greatest pieces of history I have ever found archived on TH-cam. To the poster that uploaded this I want to give a big thanks to you!
Appreciate that. The film has been in the family for a century and has been converted to DVD about 20 years ago. I figured this was the best way to keep it.
@@JefSmith If you don't mind me asking, what's the story behind it? How did your family acquire it?
@@blessed7fold it was my great grandfather's farm, Frank Moses Busha (pronounce Boo Shay). My grandmother's sister Florence (my great aunt?) is the one milking the cow. Evidently my great grandparents liked to square dance, Henry and Clara Ford were also in the group and asked my great grandfather if they could use his farm to film the commercial. The farm was between 7 and 8 Mile roads just outside of Detroit, which is now inside Detroit.
@@JefSmith That is incredible! You own one of the oldest and most precious pieces of tractor history and the fact that your own ancestors are a part of it is amazing. You should feel very proud. Ford tractors are the best tractors there ever was! I have a late 60's model Ford 3000 that by logic should not be running anymore but that tractor fires up with first turn of the key every time. Nobody built tractors like Ford.
@@JefSmith I'm a Brazilian jobless agronomist and I liked your video.
The Fordson tractor founded the modern agriculture.
I loved that Hay Bailer part. I bailed hay in Missouri in the mid 50s with an old guy that had that exact model machine. Had to watch that plunger when you forked the hay in the opening. We would put a block of wood in each time to separate the bails. And had to keep the bailing wire done just right. That was the owner's job. Good old Gib Williams.
It's mind boggling to think that just 50 years after this tractor commercial was produced, we were getting ready to... GO TO THE MOON!
The technological progress over the last 100+ years is unlike anything mankind has ever witnessed in its entirety.
Yes, Stanley Kubrick made it "happen" huh?
We didn't go to the moon man
@@coloradostrong
The hard work of thousands made it happen including input from the Russians. Do you really think if we faked it, they would've kept it a secret all these decades..
Good thing scientific progress doesn't rely on the internet peanut gallery to decide what's real or not.
@@briankenny94 Yes we did, use some common sense.
On Father’s Day today I’m thinking of my own dad. Born Aug 4 1900. He shall all this change in his life time. He all most lived to see man land on the moon in 1969. Just few more weeks and he would had. He was quit a man. Way different in most ways from todays men. Now I’m old and have lost my children. Buried them. But my grands are my lights. They shine Bright
If you see this reply Allen I greatly respect the men like your father who built what we have today, and I agree that today's men including myself are much softer. We're been spoiled by an easy life of being given everything from the previous generations that sacrificed today for a better tomorrow. I'm sorry to hear that you had to bury your children. Nothing anyone says can make that easier, yet I hope you can find some solace in seeing their children grow. Not everyone has that opportunity. I've seen many of my relatives grow old and die alone without any children of their own and it is heartbreaking to watch.
@@knurlgnar24 thank you sir
Dog gone it. You sold me. I'm gone get me one of those Fordson
Fantastic and very informative video. Thanks, really appreciate seeing all the old implements working their finest.
When I briefly worked for a Ford tractor dealership, we had a Fordson tractor, that we occasionally drove around the place. It was crude, but still fun.
I believe they need to bring farming and agriculture classes back into schools I know there are some that have them but there definitely needs to be more.
My dad plowed with horses and mules during the depression and then a steel wheeled fordson was their first tractor. He passed away about 3 years ago. After ww2 he did tire sales and then book keeping for heavy construction and mining. He always lived as if the depression may reocure saving his money only buying what was needed. He died a multi millionaire. Also my mother worked and saved so the two of them made this possible.
Your father was the old school breed when it came to handling money. Buy what you NEED. When you went through the Great Depression, it was natural to feel there could be another right around the corner. And that was a very frightening prospect.
@@david9783 - They schedule a depression about every 20 years...
@@BuzzLOLOL Not surprised here.
@@BuzzLOLOL 20 years is one generation. Every generation needs to find out for itself that if you spend everything you can see and go into debt over your head all the time, eventually things turn bad.
@@lwilton - 33 years is usually considered a 'generation'... the ultra rich manipulate the economy and profit from good and bad times by knowing in advance when good or bad is going to occur... they sell high at the peak of good and buy back at the bottom of low...
No fender guards to shield you from those bone crushing steel wheels. One slip or mistake and you’re an angel… 👼🏻
Ford was involved in a lawsuit sort of regarding this, these tractors had a tendency to flip over backwards when plowing and hitting a large tree root. Later models have large fenders to prevent tipping over backwards
With a new Fordson my farm brought in over $126 last year!!!!!
interesting video thanks for taking us back in time. have a great day
Great video, nothing has really changed in a 100 years, everything that farmer was going through, we're still going through it today, just different numbers.
that guy with only his plow owed no one for anything he had could operate off of his own seed and live stock indefinitely and pass that infrastructure to his kids who could do the same. this was not an add for equipment they were selling debts and this was the first nick in the death from a thousand cuts that agriculture finds its self facing these days. not saying that tractors were not the boon to farmers that they obviously can be BUT it was actually the loans and the debt that were being marketed here and going to their wives in that way was LOW very VERY low and keep in mind that this advertisement was shown in a public theater to live audiences full of farmers who are sitting next to their wives and their neighbors who all know who owns tractors and who does not.....if you were out on a date night with your wife and you were "That Guy"? yeah you were NOT getting any when you get home after that date and your life would be a living hell until that woman could go to her knitting circle and tall them all about the new tractor that you just bought and how expensive it was.
yea but see what happened: old farmer bought more land to be a "Business Farmer". So this was the beginning of "Go Big, or Go Home" and BigAg.
@@kevint1910 Nice to see somebody who gets it. The "lords" of the Old World lost their power when the New World was discovered and people could make a life for themselves. They have been fighting to get it back ever since, and have succeeded to the point where most people don't even realize they are essentially slaves.
@@kevint1910 "Death from a thousand cuts". Interesting. I bet very few people know where that saying came from. Good to see somebody use it.
@@kevint1910 -- I agree with what you say, however you forgot one thing. As more and more farmers bought tractors, food production went up and the cost of food went down, including the cost of labor. This put pressure on the traditional farmer without a tractor. Over time they had no choice but to buy. Couple that with the advent of deep well drilling and dam building in the 1930's, we experienced an agricultural boom the likes of which we've never seen before.
Whenever they show the tractors all I can see is a Hoyt-Clagwell.
Mr Haney was one heck of a tractor salesman!
I could watch this type of thing for hours. thanks
That 3 furrow plow looks a bit optimistic for the puny little tractor 😁
I noticed they weren't going that deep so that tractor could probably handle it.
Note the fact that it’s a John Deere plow and was specifically designed for the Fordson. Ford didn’t make implements.
Plus the fact that the worm gear rear end delivered a lot of power to the ground. The problem wasn’t lack of power to pull a plow that size the problem was it delivered so much power, when the plow hooked a rock or root the damn thing would rear up, flop on it’s back and crush the driver before he could stop it. The Fordson tractor’s only redeeming factor was it was cheap so nearly anyone could afford them.
An old-timer told me that those old Fordson tractors were terrible. First, they were very hard to start on a cold morning. Owners would drain the oil at night and take it into the kitchen and put it under the stove so in the morning it would be warm. Some farmers lit a fire under the oil pan in the morning to make the tractor easier to start.
That was pretty typical for any tractor at the time not just the Fordson. My grandfather would put coals under the model T Ford car he had in the winter as well. Also drain the water from the radiator in the winter as well.
Am sure that throughout the winter, the radiators would have had to have been drained to avoid frost damage to the cylinder blocks and heads.
@@dwightl5863 and start them dry so the block warmed up to help the vaporiser out as well, some times warm water.
In the old days they used sugar as an antifreeze.
And let's not foget to drain that raddiator! Ice has HUGE hydraulic tendencies ☆ Happy tractor tippin to you-👍
Nice to see that they are very capable of pulling 3 furrows at pace rather than pussyfooting about with 1 or 2 furrows at vintage ploughing demos.
Regards from the UK 🇬🇧
I think they may be taking it easy as many of the parts are now discontinued lol. Check this thing out - 44 bottom plow being pulled by a steam tractor th-cam.com/video/5xDj45zF-l0/w-d-xo.html
@@HudsoniteJessie so much power and grace from fire and water. Really awesome.
We don't have anything like this in the UK 🇬🇧.
Regards
It wasn't until the mid 1950s that tractors finally outnumbered horses. My gg grandfather bought a Titan in 1919.
My grandfather was traveling USA and Canada in those days servicing Minneapolis-Moline tractors... met GrandMa in Canada and moved her to USA... she had earlier moved from Ireland... he said when that flaming red hair came around the corner of a building, he was hooked...
In 1850 NYCity planners estimated that by 1950 there would be so many horses the city would be buried under 100 feet of manure yearly if they didn't keep it hauled away...
Ancestors on father's side came with Peter Stuyvesant to set up New Amsterdam... ---> NYCity... supposedly they were impressed sailors and had to jump ship and swim ashore to do that... we ended up with towns in Michigan and Arkansas with our last name... Michigan one is our branch... by strange coincidence my exwife grew up in Arkansas one...
I was born in '54 and my dad still had a team, more nostalgic than anything I guess but, we would take them and a sleigh to the woods and cut firewood for the house.
Those tedders they showed turning over wet hay, are absolutely vicious, the womenfolk wouldn’t let us kids within a hundred yards of the damn thing once it was hooked up.
My Grandfather worked with horses growing up on the farm back during the early 1920s. He bought a new John Deere A in 1945, my Dad said he loved that tractor after working with horses. I love horses, but they are really high maintenance animals.
Well doned job . Thanks
i love these high-tec movies... keep up or fall behind the times... 😎 thanks
At 2:19 we read that Jones didn't have a cent. Bought all up-to-date farm equipment and prospered.
I guess "Jones" mortgaged the farm to the limit, bought stuff with no money down and got lucky with the weather, pests, health, etc.
The film then claims the user could turn over a weedy field and drill it (seed drill) the same day. I'm skeptical. Seems time would be needed to decompose the vegetation, esp. for thick grass or tough weed stalks.
But besides my quibbles, I really enjoyed this film. Thanks for posting it.
Yeah it shows that the commercial makers don't know how to farm. Even back then.
Decades ago I bought an 8N.
My nieghbor was an old guy.
I plowed my field and planted it.
He laughs at me.
All that grew was grass.
One day I was talking with him.
And he told me.
You plow the field in autumn. So the weed decomposs over winter.
Then in spring. Plow it again and plant..
Fascinating film!! 👍👍
Both of my Grandfathers were born in 1898. They both told me " My first car was a horse."
Reminds of the old saudi phrase:
"My father Drove a camel, I drove a car, My son Drives an airplane, and his son will drive a camel".
Irember my grandfather had a Fordson that he used for many years !,
I thought it was tough tossing square bales up onto a trailer. Imagine having to move loose hay with a pitchfork...
That was biggest revolution in agriculture since its begin.
I agree with you.
I'm a Brazil agronomist and I'm jobless.
Many times out of the modern day jobsite, we used bulldozers, and hydraulic excavators. I often think of our fore fathers and not only what they had to work with, but what they would think if they saw how we do it now.
Is this where keeping up with the Jones comes from?
You would never know. Thats hard work and yes one tractor will save your back. Thats alot of hay too 100 tons!
_Alot_ is a town in India.
I’m having a blast watching this old ad on my hand held phone on my couch in my living room….. but that makes me wonder, how was this advertising making it to any potential customers on farms in 1917 🤔 I imagine catching a movie in town wasn’t a regular outing for farmers 🤷♂️
People struggled alot more ,way back then .In my opinion, those had to be simpler times. People had values and the basics of life was what was important. They did not have social media ,TV and the luxuries we do today .Social media has definitely caused a rift in society. God and family was important. As a society, l feel we lost our way .
Rifts in society didn't have to wait for social media to come about.
_Alot_ is a town in India. _A lot_ is more than one of something; multiples of.
Level ground, fabulous soil.
Awesome, no talkies until 1929. 12 years ahead of time.
Then there was a drought and he couldn’t make the payments and lost his tractor and farm that he put up as collateral and the man at the bank (the same bank that owned the tractor factory)was happy and the farmer and his family were homeless.
Chris Pike ....lol
YOU FORGOT THE CRA in CANADA ,AKA rabid dogs with no feeling just greed and MORE GREED . Believe me I know I am not a farmer but had a taste of their methods years ago . Got 3 heart attacks to prove it and they go the rest the s o bs !
The rapid mechanization of the 20s helped lead to the agricultural economic collapse of the 30s. They broke new land from the Dakotas to Texas, and buried the country in grain. Then the depression and the dust bowl years began.
That's it, it's settled! I'm trading in my 2016 Deere for a 1917 Fordson! It's the only way I'll be able to make my Wife happy and keep my Son from running off to the Big City!
I wonder how effective this ad was at reaching their target market.
Seems they were using shame and guilt to sell things even back then.
@@jackflash6377 Ford put a tractor on most of the farms in the country TWICE, and still did not become the dominant player.
Great video 👍. But I'm glad TV commercials aren't this long today😂
Yes the attention span has gone down to that of a gnat!
@@stevebell4906 Pretty sure by the time you'd seen it half a dozen times your attention span might have decreased somewhat 😁. But it is a nice story, it's bit like an episode of little house on the prairie 🥰
@@Altair885 This WASN'T MADE As A Shot TV Commercial. It Was A Ford Sales Promotion, Likely Shown At A Theater, Or At A Pre Advertised Farmers Social Meeting, When Discussing Farming Methods, Crop Information Or Other Farm Related Issues For An Evening. Get OUT Of Your Modern Day Mentality Buckwheat...
Any body know what type of hay loader is in this video I have a new idea one
I'm sold.
Little did they know, twelve years later both family's would lose their farms due to the Depression and the dust bowl.
Not in Michigan, where this was filmed.
Loved the movie. thanks.
The text in the 1910's had more wffort put into it, than the silent movie text of the 1920's - 1930's.
Well they never did show how the Fordson milked the cow or washed laundry.
Then the Ford broke down and couldn't be fixed, just as the drought struck. We packed the car and headed West. My family story.
If you look at the mechanicals....how much difference was there between the fordson and the early N series? (9N)....doesnt look like much
But the engineering was very different. Small, lighter, and didn't pull itself over on top of itself.
I’m going to listen to my wife and son and daughter and buy a good used John Deere round baler cotton stripper for $600,000 dollars so I can finally prosper. Oh what’s that son, you’ll move to town unless I buy a new one?
You’re right genius, the key to successful farming is spend lots of money on sales pitches.
My dad told me. "He cried when he had to plow with the horse." Grandma said. "Next year we will buy a tractor". And he did.
Here in Brazil, I'm a jobless agronomist. And I liked what you wrote.
Cool video, just remember this was shot with a slower speed camera, so everything is moving twice as fast! Just saying, they weren't pulling those plows as fast as it looks.
It was 16 frames per second.
Farmers went in debt for a farm and tractor, then Great Depression of 1929 hit and they lost everything...
My Dad made a tractor out of a 1928 Chevy for his Dad to farm with after that...
in 1955 we had and old american buick.
pushed every thing we wanted
didnt pull as the frame did wasn't up to it. ray uk im 77
When I was a kid my grandfather showed me a picture of a tractor he built in the late 30s it had a ford flathead V8 with a semi truck rear end. The frame was made with heavy c Chanel.
@@jasonbrown7258 - Similar to what my Dad built... Chevy 4 banger with 35 HP, huge power for a tractor in those days, it's 3 speed tranny plus a truck 4 speed tranny behind it, semi rear end, military traction tires, some kind of tractor front axle/tires... 13 speeds forward and 7 in reverse... also too fast for a tractor...
@@jasonbrown7258 ... we called them doodle bugs, everybody was building them back during World War II as a backup when their tractor went down. Parts were very scarce during World War one and World War II.
Fascinating.
WHAT was the daughter doing to that cow? And what magic allowed her to work without a bucket?
This video precisely details what triggered The Great Migration. Prior to the Fordson and other gasoline fueled tractors, Men and mules did all of the farming. One man, one or two mules. Steam tractors took a lot of men to operate and were used mostly on flat land. One Fordson could do the work of ten men with mules or other draft animal. This was instantly appealing to the larger land owners. Former slave families and poor white families were tenant farmers. They did not own the land they farmed. The land belonged to the landlord who bought Fordsons to replace human labor. The sharecroppers and tenant farmers were evicted. This was prior to the great depression. Concurrently, manufacturing was growing exponentially in the north. African Americans and poor landless whites traveled to the Great Lakes region and the industrial northeast. Now, the descendants of those farmers, miners, and fisherman are no longer needed in a hyper mechanized world.
That was awesome!
Coupon code?
Weren't there a lot of farms foreclosed in the 20's ,before the great depression ?
Watching that tractor with those exposed wheels and the rider so close, one wrong bump or dip could have a horrible outcome.
Absolutely: I'm the first in my lineage to have all my parts. More to the point, I grew up thinking that was _normal_.
no truer words spoken
Many a Fordson flipped over and killed the driver on hills. Not all farms were flat or free of stones.
It took them way too long to figure out you had to attach the drawbar under the belly and ahead of the rear axle to prevent that. Harry Ferguson had Fordsons so equipped, but Ford chose to stop building Fordsons.
I'd love to have one.
Most of the Fordsons were scrapped, as they were deemed dangerous and obsolete. The tractors of the 30s by comparison have survived in large numbers.
Now we know what caused the dust bowl! But look how happy everyone was!;!!
Sure looks like 1917 Fs by the radiator sides
The Amish bought all of the used horse drawn equipment and now are millionaires with straw hats.
Pretty good 👍😎
Green Acres tractor?
In the TV Series, the tractor was called a Hoyt Clagwell Tractor, however, the tractor actually used, were two different tractors. A John Deere "GP" was used in the opening, and the tractor used during the rest of the show was actually a Fordson model tractor.
"Buy a tractor and better times will follow."
It's VERY UNLIKELY that this is a 1917 Fordson model F tractor as there was only ONE built that year, most likely a test model. Only 260 were built the next year, but in 1919 over 34,000 were built. Most likely it was a 1919 model shown.
Back then, as now, they'd do anything to keep the kids down on the farm.
Innovate and automate, but don’t over leverage.
There is an old tractor for sale down the road. It is a Ford though and not a Fordson.
What farmer even had a tv to watch this commercial in 1917. History may not be as accurate as you think.
TV's Didn't Come Along Until 30-YEARS Later Kiddo. And It's NOT A Commercial Made For One Either. It Was Produced To Show A Farmer HOW To Make His Job And Life Easier And More Productive With Automation. Starting With A Machine That Was FAR Superior To Using Horses. You Sound Like One Of These Ignorant KIDS That We Call "Young And Dumb", And Probably Wouldn't Last Very Long Living In Those Days Either...
This film would have been shown at movie theaters located in rural farming towns.
The old-time farmers probably wouldn't have wasted any money going to the newfangled moving pictures back then, so most of them probably never saw this "commercial".... But their children likely did....
136 farmers were killed by operating Fordson tractors from 1917 to 1922. (only 6 years) Wise investment if they were just sick of farming.
...and six years later the fields were consumed by the Dust Bowl.
And then the crash of 29 came and We lost it all.
Yes but... Deere and IH sold lots of tractors in the 30s.
That was a fascinating piece of history. Thank you. Did the Fordson run on Model T engines?
Yes. Forsson used the same Model T's motor.
I live in Brazil and I'm a jobless agronomist.
It shared design elements like the "T" but was a different engine in that it was constructed to be part of the tractors whole frame which I'm sure the T's block could not handle. It was probably a larger displacement engine and it was designed to run on kerosene after getting it started on gasoline. When I was a young boy, I watched as my father worked some of our 80 acre farm with an older Fordson that had been converted to rubber tires. It was also distinctive having a Buick inline 6 engine grafted in place of the original Fordson, who did that I don't know. When I grew up, I used to drive the tractor pulling a hay wagon and take the hay to our barn, central Kansas. I think the tractor came with the farm my parents purchased in 1942 and my dad wasn't particularly fond of the Buick conversion though it worked quite well.
@@whalesong999 I like what you wrote. I'm a jobless agronomist and I live in Brazil.
See, tractor has no frame. The geniusness, of Mr Henry Ford. Having the engine, transmission and rear axle , AS THE FRAME. Unlike today, where funtionality and LOGICAL practicality, gave way to computerized, very unaffordable tools, farmers' require, TO FEED THOSE SAME PEOPLE ! We've progressed backwards, again.......every 3rd generation.
Times have changed but not really. Just updated
The only bad thing is that it wasn't orange as we all know that all tractors should be!
WHY Would ANYBODY Want An Orange Colored Tractor??? It Would Remind People Of The Orange Face Menace We Had Running This Country Backwards For 4-Years. Red, Green And Blue Are The Popular Tractor Colors In My Part Of The Country...
@@davemckolanis4683 Oh wow, lol! I bet you're all "woke" and stuff too aren't you.
@@JesseCase Sorry. Your Brief And Confusing Comment Makes NO SENSE AT ALL...
Hilarious advertising for a tractor. Everything is speeded up x2. Even mammy is beating the daylights out of her washtub. If daddy was so poor, he still managed to buy a lot of machines and land in a short time 😃😃😃
Back than camera were manually handcranked so the speed was always inconsistent, and the frame rate of old film was about 24 frames per second. Video is about 30 frames per second.
And as if by Magic !! - The Weeds were Gone in the blink of an eye !!!!!
👍😎
Then came the dust bowl because everyone plowed the grass in.
The dust bowl was only out west Skippy.
@@ffjsb 👌🏽 the idea of plowing in the grass started east and worked west partner
@@farmerpete0768 After WW1, the prairies were plowed from the Dakotas to Texas, it turned out that was perhaps not the best idea, at least not how they did it.
And no mudguards to stop it doing a wheelie and killing ya
@@curtisparr7064 ...I used to drive a 7610 spraying hilly fields ... that was a brake pedal steering for 50% of the day .... but Curtis , those early fordsons were notorious for standing up .... the pulling point was too low .... the main reason that they put very wide and long mudguards were that the mudguards would stop it from coming right over on the driver !! I have my dad's fordson n still ....He had vintage tractors of almost every make but the green girl was always 'mine ' .... Everything else went off to good homes but she stays with me
@@curtisparr7064 Ireland
Very Good!... #86 ✝ {6-24-2022}
how did he buy new machinery if he didn’t have a cent? Oh, right, he borrowed the money from the bank and when the economics went the wrong way the bank owned the farm and the farmer had nothing.
Farmers in the early 1900s were demanding to be let into the financial system, as they felt they were being held back. The early builders of farm equipment found they had to finance their customers in order to sell their products, because the bankers would not. It came to a head in 1929, and again in the early 80s.
The gasoline didn't cost more than the tractor, either.
Operating a tractor with a white shirt and tie...lol
Tractors of that Time don,t
have tires of air they have tire s
And now John Deere is bringing AI and remote controlled equipment to the farming industry. Soon the "family" farm will be adsorbed by the corporate world.
That was a time when a farmer could make a living with 40 acers . The tractor did two things . One at first it made farming easier yes , It made it faster . It also made GREED . More production the lower the cost of finished product . Be it corn or wheat or beans . So the poor old farmer that used the horse and plow and went to the tractor did not get too far in making more money just have to farm more land to make the same amount of money . The farmer investment went right straight to the Bank and stayed right there . The seed went up in cost and the tractor . The good old hard working farmer went to the way side . Buy 1980 the poor old farmer went broke . One by one they lost their farms to Auctions and a new farming started . Corporation farming began . Thanks to Ronald Raegan . Farmers dont even own the land and the ones that still do is just squeaking by there teeth . A lot of farms now is owned by people that dont even live in this country . Reagan and the republican party made dam sure of that . It's there personal investment . They play the stock market and run it . Sure they are going to protect that . GREED once again .
Well, greed existed for several millennia before the tractor & modern banking was invented. While your general outline of " progress" is roughly correct, it's pretty loose with facts. Most American farms & farmland are still owned by farm families, many retired or second generation, others still operate their own farmland. I began my farming career the same year Reagan was elected, and am still going. Have friends & acquaintances that have experienced every possible outcome from absolute failure to prospering... Our Amish farmers still don't own tractors & experience the same range of outcomes: failure to relative prosperity.
Democrats $5.00 gas & preferences for inflation are just as bad as Republican damage!
@@davidkottman3440 As everyone continues fighting this dumb ass republican democrat bs distraction the globalists are planning to take away fossil fuel completely. How much farming is going to get done without diesel fuel? I'd suggest a massive reduction in both food and population are underway as they now undermine the very energy source that got us here and sustain us to this day.
It was FDR that said no field should be larger than 40 acres.. the reason farms turn into corporations is because the Democrats Estate tax or "death tax"
So farms are 2 to 3000 acres now.
Got 2 million in equipment and are forced to operate like a business.
1000 acres of corn is 175000 bushels at
Harvest. Or plant winter wheat harvest that bale the state sell that and plant soybeans.
You are lost in the head
Bought more land! hahaha
Early propaganda, one thing for sure the lady milking in the movie had never milked cows before
God's plan God only knows Henry Ford God only knows God's plan Christ Jesus Amen Christ Jesus