Independent curation

Find farming history books you'll love

Weekly picks surfaced by readers who obsess over tractors, soil, and stories from the field.

Share your top 3 farm reads

Join fellow readers swapping must-read manuals, memoirs, and histories.

Start a list

Fresh off the shelf

Recently Added

Browse all books
Loaded 14 more books
Belts and Chains A Basic Guide to the Maintenance, Installation, and Failure Diagnosis of Belt and Chain Drives
Belts and Chains A Basic Guide to the Maintenance, Installation, and Failure Diagnosis of Belt and Chain Drives

Belts and Chains helps a reader understand the workings of belts and chain drive components better. By starting with the basics, it builds your knowledge step by step in a very structured manner.

View Details
Farm Tractors Features Models from the World's Leading Manufacturers Including John Deere, IH, Ford, Case, Mercedes-Benz, Massey-Ferguson
Farm Tractors Features Models from the World's Leading Manufacturers Including John Deere, IH, Ford, Case, Mercedes-Benz, Massey-Ferguson

Complete with dazzling full-color photographs and illustrations.

View Details
John Deere Tractors
John Deere Tractors

Including more than 130 colour photographs, the story of two-cylinder tractors shows superbly restored tractors owned by enthusiasts in the United States, Britain and Canada. Some of the photographs are detailed shots showing special features. These provide a fascinating record of the design changes that took place over more than four decades of development.

View Details
John Deere Farm Tractors A History of the John Deere Tractor
John Deere Farm Tractors A History of the John Deere Tractor

Leffingwell combines interviews with famous Deere designers and newly discovered information on Deere tractors with 200 new, color photos of original and restored tractors from all over the US, to provide a unique history of America's favorite farm tractor. 250 photos and illus.

View Details
John Deere
John Deere

Born in Rutland, Vermont, John Deere served a four-year apprenticeship to a blacksmith and worked in that trade until 1837.The implements being used by pioneer farmers of that day were cumbersome and ineffective for cutting and turning the prairie soil.To alleviate the problem, Deere and a partner, Major Leonard Andrus, designed three new plows in 1838.The plow was so successful that by 1846 Deere and his partner were selling a thousand a year.Deere then sold his interest to Andrus and organized a plow company in Moline, Illinois.After experimenting with imported English steel, he had a cast steel plow made for him in Pittsburgh.By 1855 he was selling more than 13,000 such plows a year.In 1868 his business was incorporated as Deere & Company, which is still in existence today.

View Details
Chemical Applications Management
Chemical Applications Management

This book describes many various kinds of pesticides, their toxicity, calibrations, and proper application. Also very practical management methods and application techniques, such as best planting times to avoid certain pests; how to measure ground speed to obtain the most cost-effective results from your applications, and how to interpret the different elements of chemical labels. Our book has over 850 pictures, charts, tables, graphs, and other illustrations to let you see exactly what we mean. This book is filled with EPA, OSHA, and other regulatory agency standards and suggested ways to meet or exceed those standards. Some topics covered in simple, straightforward language are soil nutrients and soil analysis; accurate identification of weeds, insects, and diseases and effective ways to control them. Also proper application techniques; using the new plant growth regulators and harvest aid chemicals; safe handling of toxic chemicals (an entire chapter is devoted to this topic); and much, much more.

View Details
John Deere New Generation Tractors
John Deere New Generation Tractors

In August, 1960, thousands of enthusiastic on-lookers gathered to witness the long-awaited introduction of John Deere's new four-cylinder tractors. Presented in archival photographs and ads, as well as contemporary color photography, this volume presents an inside look at how the tractors were designed and conceived, and discusses the managerial strife that made the New Generation (1960-72) tractors possible. Includes coverage of features and options. Standard hardware, as well as rare options, for the 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000, 7000 and Worldwide series tractors is covered in detail.

View Details
Tractor Wars John Deere, Henry Ford, International Harvester, and the Birth of Modern Agriculture
Tractor Wars John Deere, Henry Ford, International Harvester, and the Birth of Modern Agriculture

<b>"Mr. Dahlstrom...has written a superb history of the tractor and this long-forgotten period of capitalism in U.S. agriculture. We now know the whole story of when farming, business and the free-market economy diverged, divided and conquered." <br>—<i>Wall Street Journal</i><br><i> </i><br><br><br>Discover the untold story of the “tractor wars,” the twenty-year period that introduced power farming—the most fundamental change in world agriculture in hundreds of years.</b><br><br>Before John Deere, Ford, and International Harvester became icons of American business, they were competitors in a forgotten battle for the farm. From 1908-1928, against the backdrop of a world war and economic depression, these brands were engaged in a race to introduce the tractor and revolutionize farming. <br><br>By the turn of the twentieth century, four million people had left rural America and moved to cities, leaving the nation’s farms shorthanded for the work of plowing, planting, cultivating, harvesting, and threshing. That’s why the introduction of the tractor is an innovation story as essential as man’s landing on the moon or the advent of the internet—after all, with the tractor, a shrinking farm population could still feed a growing world. But getting the tractor from the boardroom to the drafting table, then from factory and the farm, was a technological and competitive battle that until now, has never been fully told.<br><br>A researcher, historian, and writer, Neil Dahlstrom has spent decades in the corporate archives at John Deere. In <i>Tractor Wars</i>, Dahlstrom offers an insider’s view of a story that entwines a myriad of brands and characters, stakes and plots: the Reverend Daniel Hartsough, a pastor turned tractor designer; Alexander Legge, the eventual president of International Harvester, a former cowboy who took on Henry Ford; William Butterworth and the oft-at-odds leadership team at John Deere that partnered with the enigmatic Ford but planned for his ultimate failure. <br><br>With all the bitterness and drama of the race between Ford, Dodge, and General Motors, <i>Tractor Wars</i> is the untold story of industry stalwarts and disruptors, inventors, and administrators racing to invent modern agriculture—a power farming revolution that would usher in a whole new world.

View Details
Red Tractors 1958-2018 The German Edition of the Authoritative Guide to International Harvester and Case IH Farm Tractors in the Modern Era
Red Tractors 1958-2018 The German Edition of the Authoritative Guide to International Harvester and Case IH Farm Tractors in the Modern Era

<p>This award-winning history of International Harvester and Case IH tractors includes data and photos of every model built from 1958, as well as in-depth information about how these tractors were designed and constructed. With interviews of engineers and executives, the book covers how the 40 and 60 series were created, and thoroughly covers the red tractors from the 1960s through the 1980s. The book also traces the innovations and struggles of the final days of International Harvester. The authors unearthed a treasure trove of concept drawings and photos of prototype machines to shed new light on how these tractors were created. The book includes the exciting story of the creation of the Case-IH Magnum, an innovative machine that blends some of the great engineering done by IH with the Cummins engine built by Case. The modern era of Case IH is also included, with the story of the creation of the Quadtrac as well as the entire line of tractors. With a mix of new photography of some of the most exceptional collectible models in existence along with hundreds of previously unpublished photographs, this thorough book is the most authoritative guide on red tractors ever published.</p>

View Details
Machinery Replacement Strategies
Machinery Replacement Strategies

Equipment Life Potential; Factors Determining Net Unit Costs; Increasing Capacity Cost-Effectively; Comparing Replacement Alternatives; Tax Planning Strategies; Effect of Tax Bracket on Costs; Financing Machinery Replacements; Term Debt & Replacement Capacity Ratios; When to Trade; Break-Even Point for Ownership; How Many Machines to Own; Timeliness Costs. The software program is designed to work on DOS operating systems & requires 510 Kilobytes of free memory. Instructions for installing & operating the computer program are included in the paper book. Includes software to run your own machinery replacement analysis.

View Details
Power Trains 5ED
Power Trains 5ED

In this book "power trains" is a broad term with the prime interest in transmissions used to transmit power on farm and industrial machines, especially those made by John Deere Co.

View Details
Red Tractors 1958-2022 The Authoritative Guide to International Harvester and Case IH Farm Tractors in the Modern Era
Red Tractors 1958-2022 The Authoritative Guide to International Harvester and Case IH Farm Tractors in the Modern Era

<p>This award-winning history of International Harvester and Case IH tractors includes data and photos of every model built from 1958, as well as in-depth information about how these tractors were designed and constructed.</p> <p>With interviews of engineers and executives, the book covers how the 40 and 60 series were created, and thoroughly covers the red tractors from the 1960s through the 1980s. The book also traces the innovations and struggles of the final days of International Harvester. The authors unearthed a treasure trove of concept drawings and photos of prototype machines to shed new light on how these tractors were created.</p> <p>The book includes the exciting story of the creation of the Case-IH Magnum, an innovative machine that blends some of the great engineering done by IH with the Cummins engine built by Case. The modern era of Case IH is also included, with the story of the creation of the Quadtrac as well as the entire line of tractors. With a mix of new photography of some of the most exceptional collectible models in existence along with hundreds of previously unpublished photographs, this thorough book is the most authoritative guide on red tractors ever published.</p>

View Details
John Deere Model B Photo Archive Photographs from the Deere & Company Archives
John Deere Model B Photo Archive Photographs from the Deere & Company Archives

John Deere Model B Photo Archive Edited P.A. Letourneau A magnificent collection of rare black & white photographs specially selected from public and private archives promote the unique characteristics of these popular tractors. Filled with informative captions providing histories of featured models. Row-crop versions to crawlers, styled and unstyled tractors. Sftbd., 1 1/4x 8 1/2, 128 pgs., 115 b&w illustrations.

View Details
The Complete John Deere A Model-by-model History
The Complete John Deere A Model-by-model History

Tells the full story of one of the world's best known tractor manufacturers, and the landmark models that helped to make the company an industry leader.

View Details

Browse by interest

Explore Subjects

View all subjects