Look up on your motor, at the top edge of teh block and just below the #1 plug. Thre will be a serial number there that, if it is the riginal motor would, with a very few exceptions, match the serial number of the tractor. Still there are a lot of tractors out ther that have had the motors replaced, so that's not always reliable.
There are also the date codes in some of the castings, like your crankcase, torque tube, transmission case, even the cast wheels. These will usually have what looks like a strip with screw heads in the casting, in a format ##-##-X, where #s are numbers indicating month and day, X is a letter indicating the year (I for 1939, running sequentially up to Q for 1947, the last year the Bs were made) and the dashes being the screwheads. If everything is original, all the dates you find on your tractor whould be within 6 months or so of each other (wheels are a common exception to that assertion, so concentrate on the chassis). If a lot of the dates are in the last three months or so of a year, there's no way to tell without a serial number whether it was assembled and came off the line late that year or early the following.
So that's when you go back to that number you find on the motor.
Take that number and check it against the serial numbers you'll find at the link on the left side of this page. If your casting dates are consistent with the date of the serial number you find on the motor you can be reasnably confident of the year of your tractor.
My BN has both serial numbers still on it, but assume the chassis serial number plate were gone. The number on the motor is 1190XX which would make it a '47. That's consistent with the Ps and Qs in the casting date codes, and I'd be fairly confident that it was a '47.
There are exceptions, but check it out at least that far and let us know if you have any questions about what you find.
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Today's Featured Article - George's Fordson Major - by Anthony West (UK). This is a bit of a technical info to add on to the article about George's Major in the "A Towny Goes Plowing" article. George bought his Major from a an implement sale about 18 years ago for £200.00. There is no known history regarding its origins or what service it had done, but the following work was undertaken by Harold alone to bring it up to show standard. From the engine number, it was found that the major was produced late 19
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