Reply to Bruce P:
Cool stuff,thanks for sharing.
you notice that big Versitile tractor in the background in "Man of Wheat" it was tractors like those that spelled the end of the farm Cats
Whitman county is the next county north from us, it's really neat country up there.
Bruce P
Just a few notes to keep history correct:
I am surprised Caterpillar call these tractors bulldozers. We always referred to them as "cats" even if they were red or orange. This type of tractor was built for farming first in CA and someone thought of putting a blade on it way later.
We used cats in this area way before 1946. The cat 60 was a favorite in this area. Horses and mules were delegated to history no later than the beginning of WWII. When I was coming of age the 3cyl was very much in use.
The combines were manufactured with leveling devices from the factory. I don't know about IH but JD finally quit the manufacture of the "hillbillys" sometime in the 80's because it was not cost effective to only build about 200 or less every year. About the same time the radial flow separators came out which made the importance of 100% level less important(The reason for leveling in the first place was to keep the separator level so the shoe could function correctly). Now the big swing frames are gone and the leveling is done with dual wheels and tilting the combine above an axle arrangement.
It is true we always said our cows had short legs on one side so they were level while pasturing. Now it is hard to find cattle grazing on wheatland.
RA Hanson was known for the automatic
leveler control. It was the first time the function of running the leveling device could be left up to what today we would call a "robot" I suppose. But the leveling device was still part of the orginal machine.
The self propelled machine presented a challenge to our local farmers and there were a number of them designed, Dave Neal in Garfield as an example.
In fact Dave built a system for a IH-51 that could be controlled from the cat eliminating the combine man. This is just opposite from what as was described in another thread where control of the cat was done from the combine.
Many times I pulled that 36 when the cat tracks were ticking the grain and the header would only be taking about 4ft. I have no idea how it could have been done with 33head of horses or mules up front.
Although the Palouse county has steep land nothing in this area is steeper or softer than the skyrockets around Prescott WA.
Well anyway that's my story and I'm sticking to it!