Tractors

After driving the tractor on the oat binder and disking in oats, the Strand boys were given the job of cultivating corn. This was a job with the main focus on dexterity — the turning on the ends of the field without knocking down the corn. As I recall, it was my brother Carl who came in for praise from Uncle Carl for doing the best job. Since praise was not forthcoming very often, brother Carl must have done a much better job that the rest of us.

Uncle Carl had been the instructor for us as we learned to cultivate, but when it came time to train my brother Verner, I was designated to train him. I imagine that by this time he was tired of seeing corn being covered or plowed out in the first few rounds. Uncle Carl seldom made mistakes, but once he got off on unmatched rows while cultivating. I then spent half a day walking on the south forty uncovering corn.

I was probably the only one of the Strand boys to use the little Hart Parr. This was an 18-36 H.P. tractor designed mostly for tillage use. I disked and plowed with it, and because of its sharp exhaust bark, you could hardly hear when you quit for the day. The hearing loss of Uncle Carl might be attributed to this tractor noise. I had several harrowing experience with this machine, particularly when trying to start it. It had a side crank outfit for starting and occasionally the crank would stick as the tractor would start. The instructions, if this happened, were to run like “hell” when it came off.

There was a water feed to the cylinders to take out the ping or knocking. So we would go out to the field with a ten-gallon can of water to replace the water used for the cooling system. On a trip to disk on the east side of the north forty, I forgot to engage the cooling fan and ran out of water in the cooling system. The Hart Parr got too hot and died. It was a long mile hike bak to the farmstead to tell Uncle Carl. Not a word was spoken by him. We brought water back to the tractor, and lo and behold, the tractor started and was not damaged.

It would have been better if he had said a few harsh words, but that was not his style. The only time that he came close to cursing was once when I heard him say “Sam-Hill.” He must have been mighty provoked to use this expression.