Upde Designs

I carry a camera with me on most of my travels around our footprint as I visit the different banks.  Occasionally I’ll happen by something of interest and take time to capture an image or two.

Such is the case the other day when I happened by this old tractor sitting abandoned in a field.  I turned around and went back to take a closer look.  I saw that it was in fact not abandoned but had a for sale sign attached to it.

It is around a 1923 – 1930 vintage tractor.  I tried to narrow that a bit but lack of time inhibited my research.  I do have a little history on the company.

McCormick-Deering was never a “company” itself, but the trademark name of a line of tractors and farm machinery manufactured by the International Harvester Co.

Between the mid-1880s and 1902, a vicious battle known as “the Harvester Wars” was waged on America’s grain fields. The farm equipment manufacturer’s capacity to build harvesting machines far exceeded demand, so sales representatives of the two giants, McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. and Deering Harvester Co., along with their smaller rivals, tried every trick possible to sell their binders to reluctant farmers. The struggle became so intense that competing salesmen would not only bribe farmers to buy, but also allegedly sabotaged the competition’s machines and physically attacked people.

As the war dragged on, binder prices fell drastically and selling expenses grew to more than 40 percent of total sales. Something had to be done and, in 1902, a merger among the five largest companies was brokered by the J.P. Morgan banking firm. The McCormick, Deering and Milwaukee Harvester companies, Piano Mfg. Co., and Warder, Bushnell & Glessner (Champion harvesters) merged to become the mighty International Harvester Co.

So that’s it for today.  Hope you enjoyed the images of this wonderful old tractor.  If you get bored and need to kill a couple of minutes take a look at my 365 project.  It’s only 17 days old but is a lot of fun.

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your Wednesday and be careful.