Letters to
the Editor4 March 2016 Farm Collector
Scrapping tractors
2015 issue of Your “First Things” column in the July Farm Collector reminded me
of a story Clarence McCutchan, Hamilton,
Missouri, told me many years ago. He had a machine shop across the street from
Kavanaugh Salvage in Hamilton. He said
they would haul in trailer loads of steel-wheeled tractors from Nebraska. Start
them up, drive them off the trailer and cut
them up into scrap.Dale Hartley via emailI have subscribed to Farm Collector for a
few years now, and I love the magazine. I
really like the variety of articles. I recently purchased the Best of Farm Collector spe-
cial issue. I was reading the article on the
New Idea horse-drawn manure spreader and thought I would send you pictures
of the McCormick-Deering all-steel horse-
drawn manure spreader I restored with my father-in-law this year. It turned out better than we expected (top photo). It
had been sitting in his shed for more than 20 years before we decided to restore it (before, right). Everything worked and it was only missing two shields. I found
another spreader nearby that had the shields. I took pictures and measurements and
made patterns of the shields I was missing so I could reproduce them. It was a fun project. We are now in the process of restoring a 1952 Allis-Chalmers WD I bought
from my neighbor this fall. Keep up the good work on the magazine.
Dave Goette, Bricelyn, Minnesota
Success with spreader project
inquired as to the function of a specific set of eveners. As In the January 2016 issue of Farm Collector, Ken Larson
shown in his photo, it looks like the back evener of a 4-up
hitch. There would be a chain, rod or cable running ahead to hook to the lead team. It would allow all four horses to
pull evenly. It could be used on anything that you would use
four horses on. I have a setup on a sled pole. At the end, I have a clevis holding the rod and chain up where the front
evener hooks up. Not many people use this system any-more. Most people use a rope and pulley setup.
Norman Roering, Belgrade, MinnesotaAnswer for mystery evenersSend letters to: Farm Collector Editorial,
1503 S.W. 42nd St.,Topeka, KS 66609
FAX: (785) 274-
email: [email protected]
online at: http://www.farmcollector.comcaption no. 1 on page 12 contained an In the January issue of Farm Collector,
error introduced not by the author, but during the process of production of the
magazine. In fact, the item shown in
photo no. 1 dates to 1839.CorrectionI enjoy reading your magazine. The
article by Leonard Lee Rue (“A Contrary Course”) in the January 2016 issue
described a lane very similar to one where
I was raised. The half-mile lane was a pas-sage from Route 605 in Delaware County,
Ohio, and dead-ended on our farm. There
was always a drag (or sometimes a roll of fence at the end of the lane). If a heavy
freeze was anticipated when the lane was
muddy and rutted, Dad could pull the drag over the lane so the ruts would not
freeze so deep.
Wayne L. Irwin, Wayne, Ohio
Another contrary course
I enjoy your magazine very much. I
wanted to add to your article about pick-ing corn (Farm Collector, November 2015).
When I was a kid, right after World War II,
several young men and returning soldiers from north central Kansas finished the
corn harvest and then boarded the Rock
Island passenger train and went to Iowa and Illinois to hand-pick corn, using those
farmers’ teams and wagons.
2015 issue contains incorrect information. The article on page 15 of the November
Allis-Chalmers did not purchase Gleaner in 1947, but rather in 1955. Allis made a self-
propelled combine (the SP100) starting in- It was a blown-up version of the All Crop 60 and used an Allis WD45 engine.
Allis dealers sold Gleaner combines,
introduced in 1952. I owned a ’52 Gleaner AR (R for raddle chain in place of straw
walkers) with a 6-cylinder Ford flathead
engine. It was a very good machine. Ford Ag and Gleaner were partners, starting
with a combine mounted on a Fordson
tractor. Allis needed a better combine, along with Ford only having a 6-foot pull-
type. I believe it was built by Wood Bros. with a Ford badge.
When the Gleaner company was for
sale, Ford announced that they were going to buy Gleaner. But the Allis people got up
early in the morning and bought Gleaner.
When Ford got there, the deal was done. J.E. Chizek, Cuba, Kansas
Picking corn by handI am 72 years old. All through the 1960s
and early ’70s, I picked hundreds of acres of corn with a Farmall M and 2-row mount-
ed No. 2-MH International picker. In the
January 2016 issue of no. 2 on page 28 shows a picker identi-Farm Collector, photo
fied as a Massey-Harris. I haven’t been
around Massey-Harris equipment that much and didn’t realize they made a picker that
resembled International’s No. 2-MH picker
so much.I really enjoy Farm Collector and look for-
ward to every issue.
Austin Smith, Garden Grove, IowaIH picker resembles MH unit