The list of Decisions on page 3 includes all lettered models built at Waterloo for which there was information available. At this point in the article, it’s time to step away from those that do not fit the rowcrop (general-purpose) configuration. The first such Decision is shown below:

Decision No. C-200
Publication Date: January 24, 1928
Covering: Model “C”Tractor Specifications
Reasons: Adopt Model “C” Tractor as per specifications of January 24, 1928. These specifications are complete with exception of Magneto, Carburetor, Air Cleaner, and Manifold which will be added later. Serial numbers to begin with 200111. Decision numbers will begin with C-200. As all Model “C” Tractors previously built are being rebuilt to the January 24 specification, all applications previous to this date are cancelled.
Effective Date: January 24, 1928

John Deere’s first effort in developing a general-purpose tractor resulted in what they named the “All-Crop.” By the time this photo was taken, the “All-Crop” had been renamed the Model “C”. It was being developed as a three-row tractor, made possible by the arched front axle that allowed one row to pass under the center of the tractor.

With further improvements made to experimental test tractors, the Model “C” was ready for the market. Decision No. C-200 made that possible. Note the “Pogo-Stick”-type of seat suspension on the production “C” shown (above), as the tractor is handily maneuvered down three rows of young corn near Roanoke, Illinois. Only 92 Model “C” Tractors were built.

safer and more economical belt power than steam tractors. However, these behemoths quickly lost favor once the prairies had been broken, and advances with the internalcombustion engine soon produced the power required for belt work in a much smaller package.

By the beginning of World War I, tractor companies and their designers were beginning to scale down the size of the farm tractor. Smaller and more nimble machines that could perform almost any job on the farm were what farmers were demanding, and almost overnight every would-be tractor manufacturer with an idea and a few investors was in the business. There were enough firms manufacturing tractor components that some manufacturers didn’t bother to build any parts at all; they simply assembled tractors with parts purchased from vendors, painted them, and silkscreened the name of the tractor or the company on the finished product.

While there were more than a few fly-by-night outfits in the tractor business, there were enough reputable firms that tractors soon became more popular. They could plow without rest, be run night and day if needed, and farmers discovered that although a tractor might have been purchased initially just to get the plowing done on time, the small and medium-size tractors that began to appear around 1915 were capable of doing several jobs on the farm. The exceptions were the planting and cultivation of row crops.

The check-row planter required a great degree of precision that was not possible with a tractor, and the same applied to row-crop cultivation. Especially when small, the cultivation of corn, and other crops such as cotton, required not only precision but human interaction; if a hill of corn or cotton was covered, the team of horses pulling the one-row cultivator could be stopped and the operator could uncover the plants.

However, cultivation with horses or mules was a nearly unending job in the days before herbicides. Cultivation began shortly after the crop emerged, and continued until plants grew too tall to get over them. As a general rule, corn was cultivated at least three times, and often four times, twice in each direction.

It was said that cultivation could never be done with tractor power, but that was simply a challenge to Theo Brown, a Deere engineer who in 1916 built a cultivator that was powered by a gasoline engine. This machine was successful enough that 25 of the machines, to be called “Tractivators,” were built for the 1917 crop year. Each Deere branch house in the Corn Belt was assigned a certain number of the machines, and they were to cultivate as many acres as possible. When cultivation ended, they were to pull mowing machines. The Tractivators worked fairly well, but in the final report there were complaints of insufficient power; that the engine consumed too much gasoline, oil, and water; and finally, that the machine could do no more work than a good team of horses, which made it essentially impossible to sell. The machines were returned to Moline, and no more effort was expended on the one-row machine.

However, the Tractivators had proven that cultivation by mechanical power was possible, and Deere engineer Walter Silver of the Plow Works constructed a two-row “motor cul-

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