When it was introduced in 1924, International Harvester presented the Farmall as the revolution in agriculture that farmers had been waiting for. The claim wasn’t all hype. The standard wide stance tractor had proven it’s worth years before at tasks like plowing and belt work. The Farmall added row crop work like planting and cultivating to the list. Mr. Farmer could now collect a tidy sum by sending Ole Dobbin to the glue factory, not to mention saving the cost and time spent mucking out processed oats and hay from his stall.
The International Harvester catalog claimed it could: plow 7 to 8 acres per day, bed up or list 20 acres per day, plant 20 to 30 acres per day, cultivate 15 to 25 acres per day, or mow 20 to 30 acres per day. All far more than he could accomplish with the best team of horses or mules that money could buy. The three wheel design and independent rear wheel brake system enabled it to turn within an eight foot radius making the tractor nearly as nimble as that team of horses as well.
The Farmall was shipped from the factory with a belt pulley, adjustable drawbar, removable wheel lugs, brake power takeoff and an oil air cleaner as standard equipment, It was rated for two plows and had ample belt power to run a small threshing machine or an average size ensilage cutter.
International Harvester had long produced a catalog full of farm machinery for both horse drawn and machine powered applications that covered just about everything you could want to do. When the Farmall was introduced, they added attachments designed specially for the new tractor. The list included: two row and four row cultivators, a 7 foot mower attachment, a two row middle buster, a four row planter and a sweep rake.
All these attachments were powered by an IH four cylinder valve in head, kerosene engine with a bore of 3 and ¾ inches and a stroke of 5 inches. The Farmall was tested at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln from September 14 th to the 19 th in 1925. Maximum horsepower on the belt was found to be 20.05, at the drawbar it was rated at 13.27 hp with the engine turning at 1200 rpm.
The engine was fed from a main tank that held 13 gallons of kerosene, gasoline for starting was provided by a small tank that only held ⅞ ths of a gallon of fuel. The transmission provided three forward gears with speeds of two, three and four miles per hour and a reverse that ran at 2 ½ mph.
In 1931 International Harvester added a new variant that they named the F 30. It was basically a power upgrade from the Farmall. At this point the original version became known as the Farmall Regular. The following year saw more changes with the Regular getting a power boost by way of a new engine and being renamed the F-20. A smaller lighter tractor designated the F12 was also added and Farmall became a line of tractors, instead of a single model. The F series continued until 1939 when it was superseded by what came to be known as the letter series tractors.
The 1929 Farmall shown here is owned by Kevin and Jordan Isenhour. It was exhibited at the Foothills Antique Power Association of NC show at the Hickory American Legion Fairgrounds located at Newton, NC. For information about their shows visit; www.foothillsantique.com .
Sources:
International Harvester Catalogue # 27
Digitalcommons.unl.edu Nebraska Test # 117
En.wikipedia.org
