A Brief History of Agricultural Tractors

Tractors have been in use since 1868. These early tractors used steam as as an energy source and mostly resembled locomotives. They were excessively heavy and cumbersome, and most of them weren't actually suitable for any kind of work related to farming.

These old machines weren't known as tractors. They were called traction engines at the time, and were mostly used for road hauling. Soon, however, machines started being built for farming, especially in North America. Like most agricultural machinery at the time, many of them weren't even self-propelled. Their engines were instead used to run threshers by connecting the two machines with a belt.

The word "tractor" was coined in the beginning of the 20th century by the Hart-Parr Gasoline Engine Company, who decided that "traction engine" was too long and vague. The machines that had earlier been called "gasoline traction engines", were now simply called "tractors". Petrol had already been used by agricultural machinery since the 1880s, however it wasn't very common until the term "tractor" was coined.

The new tractors were more practical than their steam-powered counterparts, but they were still not very affordable. It wasn't until the First World War, when Ford introduced the small and relatively cheap Fordson model, that tractors started being used extensively and gave us the first glimpse of that familiar tractor shape.

Tractor usage surged especially after 1922, when Ford cut the price of their Fordson model drastically and thus started a price war with other tractor manufacturers. During the Great Depression, many tractor manufacturers were forced out of the business. Even Ford, who had dominated the market during the 1920s, left the business and focused on other industries.

After the economical recovery and the Second World War, Ford re-entered the tractor industry and regained its important presence, along with the now dominant International Harvester Company. Since the 1960s, when the International Harvester Company started losing its dominance of the market, John Deere has been the leading producer of tractors in the world.

The early tractors were only a slight improvement from their earlier steam-powered counterparts, but they were gradually improved throughout the 20th century. Most early tractors were practically engines on wheels, and didn't have any cab to protect the driver from the weather. Tractors even had iron or steel wheels until 1932, when rubber tyres were introduced.

In the 30s, people used tractors even more, as technology improved with the invention of first the "one plough" tractor by the International Harvester Company and then the three-point hitch by Ford. The "one plough" tractor was a new, smaller, less expensive tractor, which allowed small farmers to replace a few of their horses with machines. The three-point hitch device gave the tractors superior ploughing capabilities, and caused another, greater surge in tractor production after the Second World War.

Before that, horses were still widely used in agriculture, and much more people were employed in agriculture. Tractors changed the world in many ways. They freed up a considerable workforce from the farms, and many migrated to the growing cities during the mid-20th century.

Tractors proved to be much cheaper and more efficient than the horses and mules that were used earlier, as these animals ate about one-fifth of what they helped produce. Tractors, along with other modern agricultural machinery, revolutionized western 20th century agriculture.