Find farming history books you'll love

Tractor The Heartland Innovation, Ground-Breaking Machines, Midnight Schemes, Secret Garages, and Farmyard Geniuses That Mechanized Agriculture

<p>This rollicking ride into machine history follows the innovators, entrepeneurs and hucksters who transformed our world with farm machines. Starting with the turn-of-the-century visionaries who saw that four wheels and a motor could replace for the horse, the book moves swiftly through key early developments to cover the power farming movement of the latter part of the 20th Century--a time when major manufacturers lagged behind and independent builders and farmers began creating their own solutions with a pencil drawing and a welder. The book includes stories of the butcher shop where John Deere secretly designed a completely new line of four-cylinder tractors, to the skullduggery and corporate raiding that took place in fields and back lots as company agents schemed to discover what their dirty ol' competitors had up their sleeves. The book moves all the way up through the creation of the first tractor electronics, the merger movement of the 1980s, and the emergence of the high-technology innovations such as smart farms and auto-guidance which are changing the farm as we know it. This raucous, heartfelt book shines a light on some of the bright minds and innovative companies which emerged from the fertile fields of America's heartland.</p>

Wages in Practice and Theory: McCormick and International Harvester 1860-1960

Apparent first edition hardcover

John Deere Tractors

<p>Since the early 1920s, John Deere tractors have been cultivating, plowing, and seeding fields across America--and across the globe. American agricultural and mechanical know-how at its finest, these tractors have more than lived up to the company motto "Nothing Runs Like a Deere," in the process becoming the most beloved machines among farmers.<br> <br> A celebration of this icon of American farming, this book features brilliantly detailed photographs of all the most popular and powerful John Deere tractors, along with a wealth of information about these marvels of machinery. The book contains everything a loyal fan of John Deere could hope to find, from curious tidbits to historical facts and horsepower statistics, from Nebraska test results to implement information reaching from the early 1920s up to the present.<br> <i><br> John Deere Tractors</i> includes samples of the company's early advertising and brochures, historical photos of these great tractors at work, and a sampling of the newest technologies being used on these machines.</p>

Polyface Designs A Comprehensive Construction Guide for Scalable Farming Infrastructure

<b>A comprehensive how-to manual of Polyface Farm’s signature designs—with tips, tricks, and a half century of lessons learned through trial and error.</b> <br>Have you wondered how to build the Polyface broiler shelter, or the dolly to move it, or an Eggmobile, Gobbledygo or Shademobile? For folks getting started, folks adding enterprises, or folks wanting a cheaper bootstrap way to build portable livestock infrastructure, Polyface Designs has all the diagrams and do-it-yourself building specifications. <br>Joel Salatin wrote the text and Polyface former apprentice and engineer extraordinaire Chris Slattery did the drawings. Ultimately practical, the book includes how to build a corral, a home-made head gate and even how to select the right axle for your project. Square footage requirements for the deep bedding hay shed and area advice for pig pastures make this the definitive repository for a lifetime of Polyface experimentation. A massive volume, its 568 pages are in full color and beautiful enough to be a coffee table book even though you’ll use it in your shop. Don’t let the cover price scare you; one building tip can more than save the price of the book.

John Deere Plowing Pioneer

John Deere - the name is known all over the country. Did you know John Deere is more than just a tractor company? John Deere was a blacksmith from Vermont! His invention of the self-polishing steel plow was just the beginning of a long and successful career. <br>These popular readers include easy-to-read information, fun facts and trivia, humor, activities and a whole lot more. They are great for ages 7-12 (grades 2-6), because although simple, these readers have substance and really engage kids with their stories. They are great for social studies, meeting state and national curriculum standards, individual and group reading programs, centers, library programs, and have many other terrific educational uses. Get the Answer Key for the Quizzes! Click HERE.

John Deere Tractors

To farmers the world over, there's no tractor like a John Deere. The history of Deere's development of the farm tractor and its fight to be number one in the business is chronicled here, based on interviews with the designers, engineers, dealers, and farmers that made Deere famous. John Deere Tractors tells the story with more than 250 stunning color photographs and rare archival pictures of all the legendary Deere tractors. Here they all are, from early experiments to the Waterloo Boy, the Model D, the great Johnny Poppers, and on to the modern four- and six-cylinder models. Packed with colorful stories, anecdotes, never-before-seen styling drawings, and pictures of experimental tractors, this is the story fo all the great John Deere farm tractors.

The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer

Foodies and environmentally minded folks often struggle to understand and articulate the fundamental differences between the farming and food systems they endorse and those promoted by Monsanto and friends. With visceral stories and humor from Salatin's half-century as a "lunatic" farmer, Salatin contrasts the differences on many levels: practical, spiritual, social, economic, ecological, political, and nutritional.<br><br>In today's conventional food-production paradigm, any farm that is open-sourced, compost-fertilized, pasture-based, portably-infrastructured, solar-driven, multi-speciated, heavily peopled, and soil-building must be operated by a lunatic. Modern, normal, reasonable farmers erect "No Trespassing" signs, deplete soil, worship annuals, apply petroleum-based chemicals, produce only one commodity, erect Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, and discourage young people from farming.<br><br>Anyone looking for ammunition to defend a more localized, solar-driven, diversified food system will find an entire arsenal in these pages. With wit and humor honed during countless hours working on the farm he loves, and then interacting with conventional naysayers, Salatin brings the land to life, farming to sacredness, and food to ministry.<br><br>Divided into four main sections, the first deals with principles to nurture the earth, an idea mainline farming has never really endorsed. The second section describes food and fiber production, including the notion that most farmers don't care about nutrient density or taste because all they want is shipability and volume. The third section, titled "Respect for Life," presents an apologetic for food sacredness and farming as a healing ministry. Only lunatics would want less machinery and pathogenicity. Oh, the ecstasy of not using drugs or paying bankers. How sad. The final section deals with promoting community, including the notion that more farmers would be a good thing.

John Deere Tractors A History of the John Deere Farm Tractor

Red Combines 1915-2020 The Authoritative Guide to International Harvester and Case Ih Combines and Harvesting Equipment

<p>This award-winning book chronicles the complete story of the red combine's impact on agriculture and society. Co-authored by long-time IH and Case IH product manager Gerry Salzman, Red Combines 1915-2020 is a unique collaboration that featured Klancher's storytelling ability and Salzman's knowledge from 42 years as an industry leader and insider. The book includes photographs and details about every International Harvester and Case IH combine built in the United States and abroad, and tells the story of the creation of the Axial-Flow combine, which was developed in a garage so secret only a few people knew it existed. The Axial-Flow combine was a technological leap that transformed the industry when introduced in 1977. The book covers the entire line of red combines, including the CBX, a top-secret mega-combine built in the 1990s. Also included is brief coverage of J.I. Case combines. Authored by Lee Klancher and the team of talented contributors who created the award-winning Red Tractors 1958-2013, this thorough and entertaining book is another captivating volume sure to please fans of agricultural equipment and farm history.</p>

Farmall Model M Photo Archive : Photographs from the McCormick-International Harvester Company Collection

Includes rare photographs of the Farmall 3F and the M prototype.'

John Deere Yesterday and Today

<b>Celebrate the history of a beloved American brand that has become familiar to generations of farm families.</b> <ul> <li>Follow this iconic agricultural company from the early 1800s, when John Deere himself devised a plow blade in his blacksmith shop, through the automation of the two-cylinder tractor nearly 100 years later, and into the 21st century of advanced technology and the future of farming equipment.</li> <li>Stunning color photographs and illustrations, many of which feature John Deere memorabilia, such as a commemorative Barbie doll, down through the years.</li> <li>Hardcover, 192 pages</li> </ul>