Tractors

I've always had a strong like for antique farm equipment, mostly stuff owned by my Grandfather when I was young.

History

I don't know the date, but the first tractor in the Wells family was a John Deere L purchased by my Great-Grandfather W.F. Wells when my Grandfather was young. In addition to being used for every task on the family farm, my Grandfather would also plow victory gardens for neighbors with it throughout the war. When he got married and moved to what I think of as the family farm, the L came with him. He told me that it took so long to plow his 60 tillable acres with the one-bottom plow that by the time he'd finished, weeds were growing on the ground where he'd started. He continued this way for several years before deciding to improve his life.

Around the 1950s, inspired by his father's tales of old Hart-Parr machines in Colorado, he bought a Hart-Parr Oliver 70 and plow for which he paid $950. I believe this was the best $950 ever spent in the history of mankind as the tractor never required rebuilding and always lent itself to whatever adaptation was required to make life work on the farm. Life wasn't all sunshine and rainbows and it needed repair often. He even showed me a tool he made to replace the valve guides without removing the head.