DURING wartime and particularly in the 1940s, tractors took over from horses in a big way. This was when the extremely popular "little grey Fergie" came onto the scene and proved itself to be a great little workhorse.

It occurs to me that if you were to ask farmers and farm workers who were engaged in agriculture at that time: "What was the most significant benefit the tractors had over horses?" you would get a variety of answers and they would probably all be right. Some would say they were stronger than horses, another opinion would be they were faster - others would say they saved labour, while yet another view would be that tractors were cheaper to run.

I think that for me the most significant difference was that the tractor did not have to be "rested". The way our boss would have put it would have been "Now lads, Montgomery's orders today: Get going and keep going!'

At dinner time, horses needed to be fed and rested, whereas for the tractor someone would have an early dinner and take over while the regular driver had his break; thus keeping the job going.

I was fortunate to be involved in farming when tractors and horses still worked side by side. You can bet your life that there were some jobs the horses were only too pleased to turn over to the tractor. I am thinking particularly of when the blacksmith cut down the pole on the binder and fitted a metal adaptation that with the slipping in of a drawbar pin allowed the binder to be attached to the tractor. Even with three horses abreast, the binder (that cut the corn and discharged it in rows of sheaves each one tied with string) could be really hard work.

Workers would then have to "set up" the sheaves in stooks, or as we would call them, "attocks", usually leaned together, butts on the ground, in two rows of four with occasionally two placed on top as a hood.

Over the years tractors have become bigger and more sophisticated - that is progress and there can be no going back.

I have to say that over the years I have had a good many people write to me about horses but I have yet to have anyone write about tractors. There has to be a moral there somewhere.

Dialect word: Snod, meaning smooth

May 22, 2003 13:00