Tom/Malcolm:

You got some pretty cool stuff comming out of the closet here!! Keep um comming!

I know this is not a plow but If you want to go on a quick vintage ride click on link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKczbwdOoqk

Also if you want to see a Pulverator plow in action click on link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=pB8e-TxQg_Q

It is that time of year!!  I got my Massey Harris grain binder out over the weekend to help our local club prepare for the County Fair Antique Tractor display.  The club has about thirty acres we play on so we always have some wheat for threshing.

This year was a little different.  First they brought out the club's JD 45 SP Combine.  It was obvious the fan was not working properly because the harvested wheat was amazingly dirty.

Next came another club member with a pto driven IH binder.  It was going to save the day by binding three or four wagon loads of wheat to thresh during the fair.  Unfortunately, it went about 50 feet without tying the first bundle.  He pulled out and said it was up to me!!

Here comes my MH Colt pulling the ground driven MH binder.  I learned early on that you had to move the binder faster than you would think because you needed to go the speed of a good team of Percheron draft horses.  I told the driver to make sure we had good speed going into the standing wheat.  Like a little sewing machine, the ole MH binder went into the wheat, did not miss a tie and finished the task faster than any of the other combines in the field.  It was not unusual for us to wait for the AC All-Crop to move ahead so we could go without stopping.

There are a couple pics of the binder working and another with my 333 pulling the bundle wagon as it was loaded.

Nice day, great fun and it was nice to know that when you need to get something done you can depend on a Massey!!

Joe,

What a lovely exhaust note  from the seat of your Green Challenger, it does the tractors good to be used, they start and run so much better as well as getting the oil well warm and circulated around the moving parts. I find you can work and enjoy them more at home with less expense than travelling miles to shows.
The corn looks to be growing fast now, you must have some heat together with all your recent moisture, bet you can almost sit and watch it grow.


Gary,

Thanks for your harvesting photo's, very nice to see the Massey's in the field and your binder working and looking great.  It looked like you had a good team of helpers loading. I notice you have your gloves on, was it a cold day??

Our crop is still green,
 

Malcolm. 


 

This is just to keep "The Shire Horse" Massey Collectors happy a few photographs of Massey Harris seed drills in operation together with a young lad enjoying the experience both riding and walking,also a very nice drill on display at The East of England Show Peterborough a year or two back.

Malcolm

That is a very nice looking grain drill Malcolm!!  Just don't see them like that very often!!

Here is my latest addition to help fill the barn.  This is a "barn find".  It has been sitting in a barn for over 35 years.  When it was last used, the farmer oiled it well and made sure it was well protected.  The inside is nicer than the outside!!  Most of the tubes have gone away but it is in very good shape considering!!

Nice looking drill Gary!! Only one problem it is not going to do you much good without a Combine now is it??? Oh I forgot you still have the binder, now all you need is a steel wheel tractor and threshing machine and you are in business.

Now back to the early days in Indiana, one of my favorite pictures of the Massey Harris GP and Pulverator plow was this picture taken from John Farnworth's Massey Legacy book volume one page 102. I just can't believe this fella is driving this tractor with his trench coat dangeling over the spinning PTO shaft on the Pulverator plow.

For many years I wondered where and when this picture was taken and I may be way off but I believe it was taken Wednesday April 12th 1930 on a farm near Evensville, Indiana. Here is an article I found in the May 10th, 1930 issue of Impleent & Tractor Trade Journal. As you will read the Pulverator Plow stole the show with it's high performance in the worst of conditions. The dealers were selling them like hotcakes after the demonstration and they could not make them fastest enough, my question is what happened to all of them??? They are rare as hens teeth now days.

Joe

Joe,

Congratulations on hitting your century and joining the selected(!) few!

Hope the anniversary and the cake went well - how did the cookies taste off the dieseled hood?

We are celebrating here today - it hasn't rained, it's sunny and it's just nicely warm but we have a poor week ahead apparently.  Even dried enough to mow the lawns.

Got a sticking float to fix this evening on one of the GPs - I figure it must be slightly out of line and rubbing on the side of the float chamber.  It will be a multiple on-off job till it comes right I think

John

Gary,

I like your latest drill purchase, a few hours spent refurbishing the tubes and a good coating of the diesel / oil mix will bring that machine back to life and look great in your collection.

Joe,

Some more interesting Pulverator material you posted, do you think that photograph from John's book was taken in England or the USA?? I have looked at it many times over the years and thought the dress of shirt collars with ties, flat caps and hats were all very British of that era?? good to tell Health and Safety Regulations were not around in those days.

Malcolm.

Here is another implement which you may not of seen in the USA and might find very interesting especially as it is mounted onto a wide front unstyled Green Challenger, it is a rear mounted cultivator which operates from the power lift, it was made in UK by Miller (is this a relative of Steve and Sandy Miller?) I was lucky to purchase this piece of literature recently but do not know of any surviving cultivators, but great to see an original photograph of a wide front Challenger on steel here in the UK.

Millers were well known here for manufacturing aftermarket steel wheels for tractors in the 1930's and 40's,

Malcolm.