Horses and the tractor.

Horses and the tractor.
We had a team of horses on the farm until 1942 when dad bought the tractor. The mare was named Queen and the horse (a gelding) was named Logan. Queen was a Belgian bay and Logan was a Percheron. Queen was a fairly gentle beast but Logan was mean, particularly with kids. I remember walking into the feeding room and having Logan snap his jaws at me over the manger. I was never allow to walk behind the hoses in their stalls. My sister did walk behind Logan and he kicked her up against the wall behind the stall.

One day my dad sent my brother down into the pasture field to bring the horses up to the barn. When Logan saw my brother he charged at him at full gallop. My brother ran back toward the barn and dad got between him and Logan who came to a skidding stop right in front of dad.. The horse respected dad but I think he would have killed my brother.

When dad was working in the field with the horses my mother would send a jar of water out to him with one of us kids. I often got to carry the water and if dad was plowing he would sometimes set me on Queen’s back and I would get to ride around the field. If I was sent out to call him in for supper I usually got a ride home.

In April 1942 dad bought his first tractor for $600. It was a little Ford 9N. The Ford-Ferguson 9N tractor began with a gentleman handshake agreement between Henry Ford and Harry Ferguson in October of 1938. Ford manufactured the tractor using Ferguson's 3-point hitch system. The 9N was known as a Ford tractor with the Ferguson system. Ferguson designed the first 3-point hitch system that is used on farm tractors today. His ingenious system combined with his inventive 3-point implements, was a replacement for the horse and the horse-drawn implements. The model 9N was first demonstrated in Dearborn, Michigan, on June 29, 1939. By 1942 they had 25 percent of the tractor market. During the war tractors were not available. In 1949 Dad replaced the tractor with a Ford 8N.