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In our family it was the Fordson Model F. My dad (who was born in 1938) remembers, when still a tyke, asking my grandfather what was the machine that was sitting idle in the shed. Gramp told him it was a tractor. "Well, what does it do?" "It pulls the plow and harrow, or the mowing machine and rake so we can plant food for us and make hay for the cattle." "Well, isn't that what we have the horses for?" Gramp had to explain to him that there was a big war going on across the ocean, and there wasn't enough gasoline right then (due to rationing) to run the tractor, except to power the sawmill and shingle mill off the belt pulley. He was what we now call a small-scale dairy farmer (usually around 25-30 head of cattle, never more) who also cut wood and had an apple orchard consisting of 150 trees to help make ends meet and put food on the table for my grandmother and their 6 sons. He never had enough money to buy a new tractor, but instead made do with the one he had, and in fact, used that 1925 Fordson well into the 1970's; I remember him plowing a small garden patch with it when I myself was just a lad. My great-grandfather lived up near the top of the mountain and had a later-vintage Minneapolis-Moline and a Case DC. They used to help each other at haying time. (In fact, great-grandfather helped things out considerably when he bought a New Holland baler in the early 50's -- up until then they had been dealing with loose hay.) Gramp finally stopped using the Fordson when its cracked manifold caught fire. He got the fire out, but didn't trust the old mule any longer, and never used it again. He never did get rid of it; it sat in the field just outside the shingle mill for many years. I think he just didn't have the heart to junk it, considering all of the work it had done to provide for his family over the years. I remember playing on it in my youth, turning up acres and acres of imaginary furrows, and making up thousands upon thousands of imaginary hay bales. It's still there. I hope to be able to restore it one of these days. Anyway, there you have it. The Fordson F is our unsung hero. Antiquated technology and all, it did its duty for 50-odd years. -- Maine Fordson
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