Tractor Timeline - A History of Tractors

Created from a reclaimed saw blade, John Deere introduces his polished steel plow blade. Deere’s innovative products, as well as his natural sales ability, allowed him to grow his business into one of America’s most iconic brands.

John Deere creates the Hawkeye Riding Cultivator, the first John Deere implement adapted for riding. A farmer using a walking plow could till about one to one-and-one-half acres a day, but with a team he could do about five-and-one-half acres.

John Froelich invented and built the first gasoline/petrol-powered tractor in Clayton County, Iowa, USA. Unfortunately, the Froelich tractors never sold well, and the company turned to producing stationary engines, with Froelich ending his association in 1895. The company eventually produced the popular Waterloo Boy tractor in 1911, and the firm was purchased by the John Deere Co.

The Ivel Agricultural Motor (the term ‘tractor’ was not commonly used until later), built by Dan Albone, was the first commercially successful light-weight petrol-powered general purpose tractor. The motor was light, powerful and compact and featured a solid rubber front tire and two large rear wheels, much like a modern tractor. The machine, which in 1903 cost around $450, had one forward and one reverse gear and was water cooled by evaporation. A pulley wheel on the left hand side also allowed it to be used as a stationary engine, driving a wide range of agricultural machinery. About 500 were built and shipped around the world, winning a medal at the Royal Agricultural Show, in 1903 and 1904.

The International 8-16 reportedly served as a developmental mule for everything from the power take-off. Power take-off (PTO) is a way to take power from a power source, usually an engine, and transmit it to an attached device, via a drive shaft, which appeared on the British Scott traction engine. This technology drastically changed the tractor industry by allowing for more complex machinery to be attached to the end of tractors, and not just stationary equipment.

Henry Ford introduced the Fordson, a wildly popular mass-produced tractor for $395 that allowed for high-quality farming equipment to be more readily available to farmers. The Fordson showed the public that tractors could replace horses in farming; much the way the Model-T showed everyone that automobiles would replace horses on the road.

In the 1920s, hooking up an implement, like a plow, to a tractor was a major task and each manufacturer had its own ways doing so. The three point hitch was easily implemented and is the simplest way to attach equipment so that the orientation is fixed in relation to the tractor itself. Ferguson’s Brown Type A was the first tractor to offer the system in 1936, followed by Henry Ford agreeing to put it on his new Ford 9N tractor.

Pneumatic rubber tires were first included as standard equipment on the Allis-Chalmers Model U tractor. Before the 1930s tractors did not use rubber tires, and most could not handle unforgiving terrain. With rubber tires becoming standard, their numbers rose every year, and by 1940 more than 90% of tractors were sold with rubber tires.

For the first time in history, the number of tractors was greater than the number horses and mules. This was a major turning point as farmers were able harvest more crops and boost production dramatically.

Farmers began conducting experiments in cultivating row crops with automatically steered tractors. These experiments helped shape the way modern farming equipment is operated today by increasing productivity.

Farmers began using Global Positioning System (GPS) for management of resources. This technological innovation allowed for precision agriculture and site-specific farming. GPS, coupled with data-collection allowed for better farm planning, mapping, soil sampling, yield monitoring, and higher efficiency.

Since the early 2000s technology has helped enormously with many innovations increasing farming and tractor efficiency. "Smart" devices and equipment are now able to communicate with each other and even the farmer, allowing for more control over the farming process. Farmers are now able to farm remotely via laptop or even a smartphone and can get notices on everything from moisture levels to yield predictions.