KinSource - Tale of the Week - Ford Car With American Tractor Unit Does Fall Plowing

KinSource

Minnesota Tales

The Stillwater Messenger, October 10, 1917, pages 1 and 3

Ford Car with American Tractor Unit Does Fall Plowing.

Clint Nethaway, who has been putting over the American Tractor Unit or rather trying to get machines ready as fast as Mr. Ewing, the lightning salesmanager sells 'em (which is a pretty hard task in view of shortage of various items) dashed into The Messenger office all out of breath Friday afternoon and said: "Put on your coat and come with me, I want to show you a Ford car doing some plowing out at the edge of town." Always willing to be "shown," we piled in, and he picked up John C. Gussman, Fayette B. Castle and Richard Erickson, a pretty hard bunch, we admit, but then we went through town pretty fast so it was all right. Nobody noticed us until we returned, except the Mayor, with whom we nearly collided, he was going so fast. We headed for the Wm. Hefty farm.

Here we found a Ford runabout attached to one of those American Tractor Units, and hauling a two row sulky plow, which it would have required 5 horses to pull, just as though it had been a boy's coaster wagon. The "lil" Old Ford was rambling right along on high at a rate of about three miles an hour, turning up two as nice furrows as one would want to see. They had been at work since one o'clock and it was then about 4:30, and it was estimated that five acres had been plowed. With any kind of luck the Ford and American Tractor Unit ought to do at least ten if not eleven acres a day, which any farmer will admit is a pretty good record. In fact we saw an ad for an Ohio tractor, costing four or five times as much as this attachment that claimed it would only do eight acres a day.

But the exhibition the tractor unit made was simply wonderful. Gussman used to follow the plow and he was about dumsquizzled by the sight. "Think of sitting on an upholstered seat and doing plowing," he said, "When I was a kid I had to trail the horses, day after day, doing the hardest kind of work. Such is life."

There is no question but that the tractor unit is an immense success. It can be hooked onto any Ford in 30 minutes, and the extra radiator can be put on in less than 30 minutes, and you have a full fledged tractor that will do the work of five horses easier and better.

The company is away behind in its orders, but when it gets going there will be something doing at the third unit of the city factory buildings.