Fordson by the Ford Motor Company was the first model of an agricultural tractor to be mass produced. It was a lightweight frameless tractor without cabin with a carburetored engine and four metal wheels.

A prototype, called an "automobile plow", was built in 1907 but did not lead to a production model due at least in part due to opposition to the project from the corporate board. Tractor design was headed Eugene Farkas and József Galamb . Mass production of Fordson model F started in 1917. The Fordson came at the end of the First World War with its manpower shortages in agriculture and utilizing Ford's assembly line techniques to produce a large number of inexpensive units, it quickly became the dominant model. Three quarter of a million tractors were sold in the U.S. alone in the first ten years. Thousands were shipped to the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union where local production was soon started. Fordson had a 77% market share in the U.S. in 1923 before facing increased competition from IHC .

Fordsons were originally produced by the Henry Ford and Son Company referring to Henry Ford and his son Edsel. When Ford assumed complete control of Ford Motor Company in 1920, the two companies were merged. Ford's hometown of Springwells, Michigan renamed itself Fordson in 1925 although three years later it merged with neighboring Dearborn. The name continues in the local school, Fordson High School, whose sports teams are called the Tractors.

Fordson Model F's were made in the U.S. between 1917 and 1928. They were produced in Cork, Ireland between 1919 and 1932 before production was consolidated at the Dagenham, England factory which built Fordsons between 1933 and 1964. 480,000 Fordsons were built in Cork and Dagenham between 1919 and 1952.

Tractors bearing the Fordson name were produced in England until 1964 when they became simply Fords. After U.S. Fordson production ceased in 1928, Irish-built and later English-built Fordsons were imported to the U.S. This arrangment ended in 1939 with the introduction of the line of "Ford" tractor made in the U.S. for domestic sales. In the early 1960's, two models of Fordson were again export from England to the U.S. although they were rebadged as Fords.

Fordson in the Soviet Union

In 1919 Ford signed a contract for a large party of Fordson tractors to the Soviet Union, which soon became the largest customer of the company. During 1921—1927 the Soviet Union purchased over 24,000 Fordsons. In addition, in 1924, the Leningrad plant "Red Putilovets" (Красный Путиловец) started the production of tractors Fordson-Putilovets (Фордзон-путиловец). These inexpensive and robust tractors (both American and Soviet models) became the major enticement for Soviet peasants towards collectivisation and were often seen on Soviet posters and paintings from these times.

List of Fordson models

• Fordson Model F (produced from 1917-1928 at Dearborn, Michigan and from 1919-1922 at Cork, Ireland)
• Fordson Model N (produced from 1929-1932 at Cork, Ireland and from 1933-1945 at Dagenham, England)
• Fordson All-Around (also called Fordson Row Crop, produces 1937 - at Dagenham)
• Fordson Major E27N (1945-1951, produced at Dagenham)
• Fordson New Major (1952-1958, produced at Dagenham)
• Fordson Dexta (1957-1961, produced at Dagenham)
• Fordson Power Major (1958-1961, produced at Dagenham)
• Fordson Super Major (1961-1964, produced at Dagenham, called the Ford 5000 in U.S.)
• Fordson Super Dexta (1962-1964, produced at Dagenham, called the Ford 2000 Diesel in U.S.)

Other Ford tractors

U.S. Fordson production ended in 1928. In 1938, Ford introduced the Ford 9N tractor using the Ferguson three-point hitch system. After 1964, all tractors made by the company worldwide carried the Ford name. In 1981, Ford expanded its tractor business when it purchased the New-Holland tractor company and formed Ford-New Holland which bought out Versatile tractors. In 1991 Ford sold its tractor division to FIAT with the agreement that they must stop using the Ford name in 2000.

External links

• History of Fordson and Ford tractors