Vintage Tractor Climbing a Hill

About this drawing

A vintage farm tractor like this one changed country life forever. For thousands of years, fields were worked by people and animals, with oxen, mules and horses pulling plows and wagons from sunrise to sunset.

In the 1800s came steam traction engines, huge and heavy machines used mostly for threshing grain or pulling plows. In the early 1900s, smaller gasoline tractors arrived. They were easier to handle and cheaper, and they spread quickly across American farms during the first half of the century.

By the middle of the century, tractors had replaced most of the horses and mules on U.S. farms. That meant one family could farm far more land, and fewer workers were needed. Millions of rural Americans moved to cities, and the countryside changed for good.

Today old tractors are treasured. Collectors restore them bolt by bolt, and county fairs and antique shows hold parades where machines more than seventy years old still putter along, perfectly able to climb a hill like the one on this page. Early tractors often rolled on steel wheels with lugs instead of rubber tires. Rubber tires became common in the 1930s, making tractors faster, smoother and easier to drive on roads.

• vintage tractor
• farm
• history
• agriculture
• hills