20th+

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Tractors - Ivel, Fordson, Ferguson, Massey-Ferguson

Fuel-power - Steam, Early Gasoline Engines - Tractor, Sawmill - archanth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_Hjdqs24Rw
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrYzzr8yja6EoioMVKmiPBEQCb5yH96Zh

Farming Transitions

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYZbCEPmWCtNZrzsWLLCauR4JKBvQ0BPP

19th century - Steam-powered farming innovation
https://youtu.be/ip0OnyCSsMU?t=33m20s

Paired steam tractors for ploughing - 19th century
https://youtu.be/ip0OnyCSsMU?t=34m18s

Full Steam Ahead - BBC 2016 - koggyb
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLltivhgN97V3pA599vy_pzuq32ESnZGZh

Ivel Early Gasoline Tractor > .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_Hjdqs24Rw

Horse-Drawn Reaper Binder, Victorian Farm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vidzddSu0D0

Vintage Reaper Binder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caHofifSgR8

Ford & Fordson tractors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d6P_6scKcQ

Working David Brown Tractors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhlgPWNl47E

Farming Father's Day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEly2tKxK6s

1930 Tractor Trials - science meets machine at World Tractor Trials

Royal Agricultural Society of England, Institute of Agricultural Engineering, University of Oxford
http://archive.commercialmotor.com/article/23rd-september-1930/64/how-the-tractor-trials-wpre-conducted
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/worlds-tractor-trials

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UED_ivfD_g0

Farming and Life on Dunstable Downs, WWII
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/70/a7447070.shtml
Power - Mechanical - antharch
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEFMsUiiH110QgUzZlu6hyL0kJFYUHt5k

Steam-Powered Portable Sawmill, Edwardian Farm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejGktdtnoLY

Knowledge, Skill Sets, Inventions, Contraptions - antharch
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEFMsUiiH113GgEaVnIE3QKvevYADqQX9

Farm & Industrial Machinery - Ben >> .

100th Anniversary of the Fordson Tractor > .

Fordson - notoriously hard to start; Ford 9N, Ford 2N; Massey-Ferguson

The first genuine Ford tractor, called the Fordson tractor (because a misleading Ford brand not related to Henry Ford was squatting on the Ford name at the time), was a tremendous success in North America and Europe from 1917 to 1928. Ford of the U.S. left the tractor business in 1928. Ford Ltd of Britain continued to thrive with the Fordson from 1928 onward. Some British Fordsons were imported to the U.S. during the following decade. Henry Ford continued tractor R&D in the U.S. after 1928. During the 1930s, experiments were made at Ford's Dearborn, Michigan and Richmond Plantation, Georgia facilities, creating prototypes of row-crop tricycle Fordsons, V8-powered tractors, one-wheel-drive tractors, and other ideas. But Henry Ford waited to reenter the market, planning to have the right new tractor at the right time to achieve a market-changing success.

In Ireland, businessman Harry Ferguson had been developing and selling various improved hitches, implements, and tractors since the 1910s. His first tractors were adapted from Model T cars. In 1920 and 1921 he gave demonstrations at Cork and Dearborn of his hitches and implements as aftermarket attachments to Fordson tractors. The hitches were mechanical at the time. By 1926, he and a team of longtime colleagues (including Willie Sands and Archie Greer) had developed a good hydraulic three-point hitch. Ferguson put such hitches on Fordsons throughout the 1920s and early 1930s. In the mid-1930s, he had David Brown Ltd build Ferguson-brand tractors with his hitches and implements. In 1938, Eber Sherman, importer of Fordsons from England to the US and a friend of both Ford and Ferguson, arranged to have Ferguson demonstrate his tractor for Henry Ford. In October 1938 the Ferguson tractor was put through a demonstration before Ford and his engineers. It was light in weight relative to its power, which impressed Ford. Ferguson's successful tractor demonstration led to a handshake agreement with Ford in 1938, whereby Ford would manufacture tractors using the Ferguson three-point hitch system.

Ford Motor Company invested $12 million in tooling to finance Ferguson's new distribution company. The investment resulted in the production of the 9N tractor which was introduced on June 29, 1939. It was officially called a "Ford tractor with the Ferguson system", although the name Ford-Ferguson was widely used. It sold for $585 including rubber tires, power take-off, Ferguson hydraulics, an electric starter, generator, and battery; lights were optional. Ford's 9N further improved the cantankerous Model F by updating the ignition with a distributor and coil. An innovative system of tire mounts for the rear wheels and versatile axle mounts for the fronts enabled farmers to accommodate any width row-crop work they needed. The 9N weighed 2340 pounds and had 13 drawbar horsepower, which could pull a two-bottom plow. It was designed to be safe, quiet and easy to operate. Ford once said "Our competition is the horse."; the 9N was intended for farmers who were not mechanically minded.

An immediate success, the 9N's configuration became an industry standard, which was followed by other tractor manufacturers for fifteen years. Henry Ford passed leadership of his company to grandson Henry Ford II in 1945. By 1946, the younger Ford discovered that, despite its success, the Model N lost Ford Motor Company over $25 million in six years. He reacted by forming Dearborn Motors in November 1946, which took over tractor distribution from Ferguson. Ford informed Ferguson that after July 1947 they would no longer supply tractors to his company. Ferguson sued Henry Ford II, Dearborn Motors and Ford Motor Company and others for $251 million in damages on the basis of patent infringements and conspiracy to monopolize the farm tractor business. Ford Motor Company claimed the patents had already expired by the time of Dearborn Motors' incorporation.[3] Approximately 750,000 9Ns were built, and it was estimated in 2001 that nearly half of these were still in regular use.

Harry Ferguson had understood that the handshake agreement had included the manufacture of the 9N in Britain. World War II intervened and prevented this, although one explanation was that Ford UK was uninterested in the plan.

9N
The first tractor of the series was the 9N, the first tractor to have both three-point hitch and a rear Power Take Off. The 9N was first demonstrated in Dearborn, Michigan on June 29, 1939. Its model name reflected a model-naming system using the last digit of the year of introduction and a letter for product type, with "N" for tractors (hence 9N). Like the Farmall, it was designed to be a general-purpose row-crop tractor for use on smaller farms. An extremely simple tractor, the 9N was fitted with the Ferguson system three-point hitch, a three-speed transmission, and featured footpegs instead of running boards. The 9N's relatively tall and wide-spaced front wheel design resulted in somewhat sluggish steering and reduced maneuverability compared to competing machines such as John Deere's Models A and B, and the Farmall 'Letter series'. But the 9N did have variable front track, a valuable feature for row-crop cultivation, via front half-axles that could be slid in and out and pinned in place. It also had variable rear track via the reversible offset of the rear wheel design (flipping the rear wheels around 180°, moving the formerly inboard side to the outboard side, widened the rear track). Uniquely, the exhaust was routed underneath the tractor, much like an automobile. All 9N tractors were painted dark grey. This tractor has a rear Power Take Off (PTO) which could be used to drive three point or towed implements. The Ferguson hitch was designed to solve some of the problems found in the earlier Fordson tractors such as flipping over if the plow hit an obstruction. The upper link also would adjust the hydraulic lift to use the drag of the plow to improve traction. This was known as draft control.

The original 9N engine was a four cylinder engine and was designed to be powered by distillate fuels. The engine shares the same bore and stroke sizes as one bank of the Ford V8 automobile engines. A few standard Ford auto and truck parts such as timing gears and valve tappets were used in this engine.

The ford 9N engine was a side valve, four cylinder engine, with a 3.19-inch (81 mm) bore, 3.75-inch (95 mm) stroke, providing a displacement of 120 cubic inches (2,000 cm3). The transmission was the standard three speed.

The finished tractor weighed 2,340 pounds (1,060 kg), and initially sold for US$585. This was an advantage as tractors from other manufactures cost almost twice as much.

2N
The 9N was revised a number of times, until being relaunched as the 2N in 1942. The 2N still came in dark grey, but now had added improvements including a larger cooling fan and a pressurized radiator. However, the 2N, like the 9N, still had only a 3-speed transmission, a disadvantage compared to many tractors at the time, such as the Farmall A and M. By this time, wartime regulations had imposed manufacturing economies, and some 2Ns can be seen with all-steel wheels. Batteries were reserved for the war effort, so the all-steel wheel tractors came with a magneto ignition system instead of a battery and had to be started with a hand-crank.

Introducing a new model name also allowed Ford to raise the price of the tractor. Wartime price controls prevented the raising of prices on existing models, but they could not determine the price of a "new" model. Despite the model name change, the serial numbers continued to be prefixed with "9N".

After the war the steel wheels and magneto system were replaced with rubber and batteries.

In 1945 due to Henry Ford's failing health, Henry Ford II, his grandson, took over the Ford Motor Company. Since the original agreement between Ford and Ferguson was sealed with a handshake (versus a written contract) and included the notion that either party could terminate it at any time without reason, Henry Ford II didn't feel the need to continue to honor it [fool!]. Ferguson was furious and sued Ford Motor Company. A few years later his Ferguson interests were merged with Massey Harris, a Canadian company, to become Massey Ferguson.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fordson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_N-Series_tractor

Tractors Working On The Farm: Power On The Land - 1943
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgasD-N0yL8

Farm, Timber, WLA, WTC
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtakTnKQQMCx3Np0zsgSkr9ih0A0w2m4V

History of Farming
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL43UrdpDUR9-FRKR3tLHUgmZp0LpgMO2y

Tractors - Ferguson, Massey-Ferguson playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYZbCEPmWCtMdtMh_eiqTMtWhgH6m2kVk

Saturday, October 6, 2018

WAEC - War Agricultural Executive Committees

.Working Under Blackout Restrictions | Wartime Farm - AbHi > .

Spring offensive 1940 > .

Wartime Kitchen, Garden, Farm - ElQu >> .

Wartime Farm - AbHi >> .

The War Agricultural Executive Committees were government-backed organisations tasked with increasing agricultural production in each county of the United Kingdom, during both WW1 and WW2. They were established in Autumn 1915 by the 2nd Earl of Selborne in a collaboration between the Board of Agriculture and County Councils, with the aim of better managing the country's limited wartime agricultural resources.

They were later re-formed in Autumn 1939 with the outbreak of WW2, and given more expansive powers over farmers and landowners in the United Kingdom. After performing surveys of rural land in their county, each Committee was given the power to serve orders to farmers "requiring work to be done, or, in cases of default, to take possession of the land". Committees could decide, on a farmer's behalf, which crops should be planted in which fields, so as to best increase the production of foodstuffs in their areas.

With the help of the War Agricultural Executive Committees, or "War Ags", British farmers increased the total productive land in the UK by 1.7 million acres between 1939 and the Spring of 1940.

When the County Executive Committees under the Food Production Department were abolished in 1919 they were replaced by the agricultural committees of the county councils. The Minister of Food could nominate up to one third of the membership of these committees. They had no powers of direction, but exercised all the limited agricultural powers of the county councils. They were abolished by the Agriculture Act 1947.

During WW2, contact between the ministry and the county committees was maintained through liaison officers, prominent local figures who represented groups of counties to the ministry. These appointments ended in 1945. Under regulation 49 of the Defence (General) Regulations, 1939 the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries was vested with powers for the purpose of materially increasing home food production in England and Wales. Certain of these powers were delegated by the Cultivation of Lands Order 1939 (SR & O 1939, no. 1078) and subsequent orders to the County War Agricultural Executive Committees which were appointed by the minister under regulation 66 of the Defence (General) Regulations, 1939. These powers were drawn in very wide and general terms which enabled the committees to take all necessary measures to ensure that the land in their area of responsibility was cultivated to the best advantage.

Under these powers the committees appointed many sub-committees, each of which was entrusted with a definite sphere of responsibility. This relieved the executive committees of the detailed work of carrying the programme into effect. Thus they were left free to consider overall policy matters while carrying out general supervision of the various sub-committees. The Cultivation of Lands Order did provide that proposals to take possession or to terminate the tenancy of any land other than by agreement required the minister's prior approval in writing.

In order that the work under the regulations and the minister's order could be carried out in the most efficient manner the counties were divided into convenient districts and district committees were established, without executive powers, to serve as the eyes and ears of the executive and sub-committees in regard to all matters of food production.

After the war, part V of the Agriculture Act 1947 provided for the establishment of County Agricultural Executive Committees for each administrative county, establishing the committees on a permanent basis, to concern themselves with the promotion of agricultural development and efficiency. As with the War Agricultural Executive Committees, the County Agricultural Executive Committees set up sub-committees to deal with different aspects of the work. District committees were also formed to give leadership in their areas on the general development of agriculture and horticulture. The act allowed the minister to delegate any of his functions relating to agriculture to the committees, and from 1947 the committees' staff became civil servants employed directly by the ministry. County Agricultural Executive Committees were abolished in 1971.

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C10481 .

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C786 .

British Agriculture WW2 ..

NFS - National Farm Survey ..

Wartime Farm

>> Homefront WW2 >>>

Wartime Garden - LoP >> .
Farm & Industrial Machinery - Ben >> .
2018 British Farming > .
British Farming - Christmas > .

British Farming >>> .

Rosehips to herbals

1.
Collecting herbs (WW2 re-enactment)
collecting rosehips: https://youtu.be/CUsU5s0ofYo?t=34m19s
collecting goosegrass (cleavers): https://youtu.be/LyGdRw6vK8Q?t=21m5s
continue: drying sage, foxgloves: https://youtu.be/LyGdRw6vK8Q?t=31m21s continue:

Galium aparine, with many common names including cleavers, clivers, goosegrass, catchweed, stickyweed, robin-run-the-hedge, sticky willy, sticky willow, velcro weed, and grip grass, is a herbaceous annual plant of the family Rubiaceae.

Poultices and washes made from cleavers were traditionally used to treat a variety of skin ailments, light wounds and burns. As a pulp, it has been used to relieve poisonous bites and stings. To make a poultice, the entire plant is used, and applied directly to the affected area
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galium_aparine

Digitalis purpurea (foxglove, common foxglove, purple foxglove or lady's glove) is a species of flowering plant in the genus Digitalis, in the family Plantaginaceae, native and widespread throughout most of temperate Europe. It is also naturalised in parts of North America and some other temperate regions. The plants are well known as the original source of the heart medicine digoxin (also called digitalis or digitalin).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digitalis_purpurea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digitalis

Medicinal Plant Use in World War II
http://herbalacademyofne.com/2014/01/medicinal-plant-use-in-world-war-ii/

Medicinal Plants During World War II
http://www.judithsumner.com/#!the-blog/crwe

Herb Gatherers of World War Two
http://www.network54.com/Forum/217936/thread/1226236742/1/Herb+Gatherers+of+World+War+Two

List of plants used in herbalism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_plants_used_in_herbalism

Chelsea Physic Garden
The Chelsea Physic Garden was established as the Apothecaries’ Garden in London, England, in 1673. (The word "Physic" here refers to the science of healing.) This physic garden is the second oldest botanical garden in Britain, after the University of Oxford Botanic Garden, which was founded in 1621.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_Physic_Garden
http://chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk/
http://chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk/the-garden/plant-collections/the-pharmaceutical-garden/
video: 3:37
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FkiXPZUiw8
video 1:26
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIvkqRQ4iIY
video 46:02
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAogM107dXw

Medicinal plant uses during World War II

By 1941, The Ministry of Health established a Vegetable Drugs Committee at Kew that published guides for herb collectors in the various rural counties. These provided specific instructions about what to collect and how to dry, bundle, and deliver the collections. Hedgerows, the dense natural hedges that define property boundaries, were particularly diverse habitats for both native and naturalized medicinal herbs. Women’s Institutes and Boy Scouts worked locally to provide reliable information on plant identification and collection.

The most essential plants included diuretics (broom, Cytisus scoparius, and foxglove, Digitalis purpurea), vermifuges (male fern, Dryopteris felix-mas), and treatments for gout (autumn crocus, Colchicum autumnale) and influenza (elder, Sambucus nigra).

Among the most important herbs was foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), which was used to regulate heartbeat and save lives in cases of congestive heart failure. Of course, the cardiac glycosides in foxglove degrade if the plants are not handled with care; a pamphlet from Kew advised that collectors spread the plants on drying racks (lace curtains tacked to wooden frames) and then dry the plants in a coke-heated shed at 90-100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Given the sustained attacks against England that began in September 1940, it is not surprising that the Vegetable Drug Committee included valerian (Valeriana officinalis), long valued for its sedative properties, on the list of most essential plants for collection and use.

Collectors also gathered deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna, the source of belladonna), autumn crocus (Colchicum autumnale, a treatment for gout), and valerian (Valeriana officinalis, a sedative). Other useful plants included wild thyme (Thymus polytrichus, an antiseptic), burdock (Arctium spp., a diuretic), colt’s-foot (Tussilago farfara, a demulcent), and black horehound (Ballota nigra, a treatment for spasms and worm infections). As in World War I, peat moss (Sphagnum spp.) was harvested from bogs to use as an absorbent sterile wound dressing; its naturally acidic pH inhibits bacterial growth and helps to prevent infection.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colchicum_autumnale
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambucus_nigra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerian_(herb)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytisus_scoparius
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryopteris_filix-mas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atropa_belladonna
Thymus praecox subsp. arcticus (sometimes classified as Thymus polytrichus subsp. britannicus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thymus_praecox
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tussilago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctium
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballota_nigra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphagnum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_hip
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamiaceae
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppermint
http://www.botanical-online.com/mint.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galium_aparine

Vitamins were another wartime necessity; most of these metabolic compounds were discovered between 1920 and 1941, and they remained in the forefront of medical concern. Because home front shipments of citrus fruits were increasingly rare, research at Kew centered on rosehips as a rich source of vitamin C. Botanically speaking, a rosehip is the cup-shaped hypanthium that remains behind after a pollinated rose drops it petals. These are often red-pigmented, and they contain the small, seed-like fruit (achenes), which are dispersed by birds feeding on the hips.

For instance, various mints and tansy (all collected and used medicinally in England during the war) are antibiotic to pathogenic strains including Streptococcus and Staphylococcus. Why? The medicinal secondary compounds of plants often function against bacterial and fungal attack—especially in plant roots, where compounds tend to concentrate. I often wonder that if we continue to overuse antibiotics and antiseptics, we will again need medicinal herbs as pharmaceuticals—this time for their antibiotic properties.

http://herbalacademyofne.com/2014/01/medicinal-plant-use-in-world-war-ii/
http://www.judithsumner.com/#!the-blog/crwe

Judith Sumner: Exploring Victory Gardens - How A Nation of Vegetable Growers Helped to Win the War 55:09
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlz21efV8-U

Sowing & "growing" & fertilizing flax & POWs & processing
continue: flax does not like heavy rain and clay soils: https://youtu.be/JBR4ejMbnHE?t=4m16s continue: https://youtu.be/JBR4ejMbnHE?t=15m22s
continue: a better flax crop: https://youtu.be/JBR4ejMbnHE?t=31m49s
continue: drowned flax crop: https://youtu.be/JBR4ejMbnHE?t=41m3s
continue: simplified processing: https://youtu.be/JBR4ejMbnHE?t=41m3s

Raising rabbits
Next: https://youtu.be/pnkSPB-9BmQ?t=36m19s

Earlier skep & beekeeping (WW2 re-enactment)
continue: https://youtu.be/LyGdRw6vK8Q?t=33m45s continue: https://youtu.be/LyGdRw6vK8Q?t=41m5s

Makeshift grain dryer
continue: https://youtu.be/kwBD9gRZLTE?t=42m16s

Peat as Carbon Store ↠

Wartime Farm '45

Wartime Farm '44

https://youtu.be/JBR4ejMbnHE?t=29m41s

1944
https://youtu.be/JBR4ejMbnHE?t=1m18s

GIs arrive - 3.5m troops, 7K boats, 54K vehicles; 11m acres (1/5th of Britain) for camps, bases, munitions dumps, and training grounds (including valuable farmland)
https://youtu.be/JBR4ejMbnHE?t=2m13s
Flax
https://youtu.be/JBR4ejMbnHE?t=4m16s
NH4NO3 - chemical fertilizer - hand-operated seed barrow - long, portable, perforated box
https://youtu.be/JBR4ejMbnHE?t=15m23s
https://youtu.be/JBR4ejMbnHE?t=17m59s
Pests -- wood pigeons
https://youtu.be/JBR4ejMbnHE?t=6m19s
Carrier pigeon - 200K pigeons => 16K parachute drops - 98% returned, some injured

22-6-12 Why Pigeons Are the Perfect Spy Operatives - Real Science > .
https://youtu.be/JBR4ejMbnHE?t=6m29s
Pigeon loft & training
https://youtu.be/JBR4ejMbnHE?t=18m44s
https://youtu.be/JBR4ejMbnHE?t=23m10s
https://youtu.be/JBR4ejMbnHE?t=27m35s
Pigeon basket => WI classes => basketmaking became reserved service
https://youtu.be/JBR4ejMbnHE?t=12m50s

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