The first big trade in my life wasn’t a trade on the stock market that could have made me a million or put me bankrupt. It wasn’t for my first new truck or car. It wasn’t for a rotary combine, self-propelled harvester, or disc-bine. It wasn’t when my parents moved me into a new house. I still live in the house that my parents brought me home to when I was born in the old Shawville Hospital.
Our first real tractor arrived at the end of World War II before I was born. It replaced a 1928 Chevy that my dad converted into an auto-track, which was commonly done by farmers in the 1930s and 1940s when they couldn’t afford a tractor. This was the farmer’s first attempt to replace the horse with something that didn’t get tired or need to be fed every day.
Our family had ordered a new Cockshutt 70 but during wartime and right after the war, tractors were very hard to buy because all the farmers wanted one.
While our family waited for the Cockshutt 70, which kept getting delayed, a little 2-N Ford-Ferguson arrived at H.I. Hobbs, where they sold tractors, cars and feed. Although the 2-N was smaller than the 70 my dad thought he had better take what he could get.
The little 23hp 2-N came with a 3pt hitch and a two furrow 3pt hitch plow. Although many new tractors today come with a 20 speed transmission, the little 2-N only had three gears. Third gear was for coming home, second was for light work like harrowing or haying and first gear was for plowing. The little 2-N was more reliable and didn’t boil plowing like the 28-Chev auto-trac did.
By the late 1940s and early 1950s even back roads were snow plowed and farmers were looking for something better than a board tied to the side of the horse pulled sleigh to plow the laneway.
In 1950, our family built a new milking barn with the first milking parlour installed in Quebec. The milk cows were housed in what was called a loose housing barn that was bedded daily with both straw and sawdust. By spring this 36 foot by 80 foot barn was packed with four feet of well tramped manure and bedding. It only took a half day trying to fork this enormous straw-manure packed pen into the horse drawn manure spreader until both dad and grandpa decided that a tractor mounted manure loader was a necessity. Dad immediately began looking for a loader for the little 2-N. The next day he found one that mounted on the little 2-N at a dealership in Renfrew, Ont. that sold Ferguson tractors as well as Dodge cars. They had a new 20-85 Ferguson tractor with a loader already mounted in the yard. Because our little 2-N was only a couple years old, the Renfrew dealer made a good offer to trade the 2-N and the two furrow plow on the 20-85 Ferguson, loader and a new three furrow 3pt hitch plow.
The 20-85 had four forward gears, 28hp, and could pull the three furrow plow faster than the 2-N could pull a two furrow. The 2-N had dry sleeves and hence the piston rings got hot and wore out faster causing the motor to burn oil. The 20-85 had a standard engine in it that was proven in many European cars including the Triumph TR-4. The 20-85 had wet sleeves that cooled better and when I traded it in 25 years later, it still didn’t burn oil and we had never changed the rings.
Even though I was only three years old, I can still remember that little 20-85 Ferguson being delivered on a one ton truck, and backed off onto our lawn. It was very small by today’s standards but with the little manure loader attached, it sure made life easier for my dad and grandpa, not having to fork out that big manure-pack.
Although the total cost of the Ferguson tractor, loader and three furrow plow would be less than a down payment on a new plow today, this was my most memorable trade ever.
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations.
gladcrest@gmail.com
