September 2017 – Scottish agricultural implement makers

Corn bins

The combine harvester brought about a revolution in grain handling on Scottish farms and changed the face of the stockyard. Where there were stacks there were now grain bins. These were accompanied by indoor granaries. In the early 1950s corn bins could be purchased from a small number of makers in Braitain. Most were English makers, through A. Newlands & Sons, Linlithgow, manufactured portable galvanised bins to hold 24 bushels, and David Ritchie, Whitehills, Forfar, manufactured indoor and portable field types, which were galvanised.

Some of the English makers ad been well-known manufacturers of iron work since at lest the middle of the nineteenth century. They included Fredk Braby & Co., Ltd, London. Braby also had a premises in Scotland from at least 1949, located on Petershill Road, Glasgow. By the following year the company also had works at Grahanston, Falkirk, and Motherwell. The company advertised itself as: “manufacturers of steel sheets, corrugated and dovetail sheets, black and galvanized; designers and fabricators of pressed steel stairs, locks, steel storage bins, shelving and steel partitions; also presse steel door frames and skirting’s; sheet steel gutters, ridgings and flashings; steel barrows; tanks and plate work; steel buildings; steel windows &c also rollers of light steel bars and sections; manufacturers of ‘Grip Brand’ bar fed boilers”. By 1960 the company specialised in making tanks, galvanised and rustless works; it also held large stocks of rustless furnace parts.

Another key English maker was Hill & Smith Ltd, Brierley Hill, Staffordshire. The company had premises in Scotland from at least 1859 until 1890. In 1859 its premises were at 23 St Enoch Square, Glasgow. It moved premises in 1866 to 195 Buchanan Street so that it could have “greatly increased space to show patterns and keep stock.” It made a wide range of metal products including iron houses and roofs, iron fences and hurdles, iron gates, sheet iron, wire fences, wire stands, and iron girders. Other corn bin makers included Agricultural Supply Co., London, W. Corbett & Co., Wellington, Salop, and B. H. Wilson & Sons Ltd, Keighley, Yorkshire.

The photographs of the corn bins were taken in western Manitoba, Canada, July 2017.

A great invention for a wet harvest: corn lifters

The early farmers who used the mowing and reaping machines were well aware of the difficulties of cutting their grain crops in a wet harvest. In times of difficulty they could draw on older harvesting techniques, in the use of the sickle or the scythe, to cut their crops. However, when these older forms became obsolete or uneconomical to use on a wider scale, the implement makers had to look for a way to get the crop moving onto the binders.

Laid grain lifters became a necessity for harvests where there was laid crop and inclement weather. But they were relatively simple in construction, slipping under laid grain so that it could make cutting easier.

By 1952 there were at least four makers of corn lifters, of which one was Scottish. Cruikshank & Co. Ltd, Denny, Stirlingshire, the only Scottish maker, was well-known, and indeed renowned for its laid grain lifters which would fit any make of binder. Other makers were W. A. Wood Ltd, Horsham, Sussex, the famous binder maker, Geo. W. King Ltd, Hitching, Herts, and George Brown’ Implement Ltd, Victoria Iron Works, Leighton Buzzard.

With changing harvest technology lifters were adapted for working with combines. Imagine an inclement year like this one without corn lifters? A real headache where the crops are laid.

The photographs show better harvesting conditions: harvesting at Pilmuir, Balerno, in the 1990s.

An Ayrshire name: Robert Howie & Sons, Dunlop

One of the Ayrshire implement and machine makers and agents from the early twentieth century onwards was Robert Howie & Sons, Newmill, Dunlop. By 1927 the business referred to itself as grain and timber merchants. From the mid 1920s it undertook the trades of an agricultural implement maker, agricultural implement manufacturer and an ironfounder. By 1955 ts activities included agricultural, grain, feeding stuffs and seed merchants.

The business exhibited at the Highland Show between 1922 and 1966, usually with a small exhibition. It also sporadically advertised in the agricultural press, in the North British Agriculturist (then farming News) and Scottish farmer from 1925 until 1968.

The photographs were taken at the Ayrshire vintage rally, July 2016.

Early American influences on the Scottish harvest field

American makers of harvesting machinery started to play an increasing role on the Scottish harvest field from the late 1860s. By the 1890s there were some large names present in the Scottish fields: W. A. Wood, New York, McCormick Harvesting Machine Co., Chicago, Plano Manufacturing Co. Chicago, Johnston Harvester Co., Batavia, New York, D. M. Osborne & Co., New York, Adriance, Platt & Co., New York, W. Deering & Co., Chicago. In the first decade of the twentieth century another name appeared: International Harvester Co.

Scottish makers of reapers and mowers started to sell Amerrican machines, usually binders, to augment or replace their own lines which were losing popularity. In the 1890s they included Thomas Brown & Sons, Duns, Auchinachie & Simpson, Keith, and Alexander Jack & Sons, Maybole. By the following decade they also included J. D. Allan & Sons, Dunkeld.

Some the Scottish makers had more than one dealership of American makers, sometimes changing over the years. Alexander Jack & Son, Maybole, had four between 1888 and 1910: Walter A. Wood (1888, 1891); Adriance, Platt & Co (1895, 1896, 1897); Deering Harvester Co., (1898, 1899, 1900); and McCormick (1901, 1902, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1910). The large maker and dealer A. & J. Main, Glasgow, had two between 1873 and 1910: Walter A. Wood (1873 to 1893) and William Deering & Co., Chicago, from 1894.

Some of the American companies had a small number of dealers. between 1897 and 1910 Adriance Platt & Co., had 8 dealers: they ranged from large businesses such as John Wallace & Sons, Graham Square, Glasgow in 1893-94 to small, localised ones, such as John Robertson, implement maker, Conon Bridge, Ross-shire in 1901. All were located in significant grain growing areas, or agricultural centres such as Errol, Stirling, Maybole, Lockerbie, Conon Bridge, Dundee, and Glasgow.

One of the more popular American companies was W. Deering & Co – Deering Harvester Co., Chicago. Between 1895 and 1910 it had 17 agents in Scotland. Perhaps the most important was A. & J. Main & Co., Ltd, Corn Exchange Buildings, Edinburgh, agent from 1894 to 1910. Andrew Pollock, Mauchline, was agent from at least 18897 to 1910. Alexander Jack & Son, Maybole, was agent from 1895 to 1900. A good number were agents for only short periods of time.

American makers of combine harvesters were to play an important role in the Scottish harvest field. They included Allis-Chalmers and McCormick. There are still a few of these “vintage” combines around. One of these is to be seen at the Strathnairn vintage rally, usually held at the end of September.

The photographs were taken at the Strathnairn Vinatge Rally, Daviot, September 2014.

A Canadian influence on the harvest field – and harvesting in Canada

If we were to think about North American influences on the use of Scottish agricultural implements and machines we would probably think about some of the Americn companies such as John Deere and International. Canadian companies also had their role and we need look no further than the harvest field.

Probably the best known Canadian name in the harvest field is Massey Harris. Massey Harris – as Massey Harris Co., Massey Harris & Co. Ltd, Massey Harvester Co. Ltd, and Massey Manufacturing Co. – has been present in the Scottish fields since at least 1887. The first Massey Harvester reaping machines were exhibited at the Highland Show in 1887 by William Ford, Fenton Barns, Drem, East Lothian. William continued to exhibit at the Show until 1893, by which time other agents were coming on the scene. The Massey Manufacturing Company, 171 Queen Victoria Street, London, did not attend its first Highland Show until 1888, held at Glasgow. It remained an annual exhibitor from 1893.

By the early 1890s other agents included the well-known name Kemp & Nicholson, Stirling, which had been renowned for its own reaping machines in earlier decades. There was also John Doe, Errol, Perthshire, Gavin Callander, Dumfries, William Elder, Berwick on Tweed, G. W. Murray & Co., Banff Foundry, Banff, A. Newlines & Son, Linlithgow, Benjamin Reid & Co., Bon Accord Works, Aberdeen, and John Wallace & Sons, Glasgow. The Highland Shows from 1893 must have been particularly notable for the number of stands featuring Massey Harris binders.

By the middle of the first decade of the twentieth century there were further agents throughout Scotland. They included Donald Murray, 62 Castlegate, Inverness, which was selling them from at least 1901, Bon Accord Engineering Co., Bon Accord Works, Aberdeen, from at least 1907, and J. & R. Wallace, Cotton Street, Castle Douglas, from at least 1910. This could be said to be a secondary wave of adoption by dealers throughout the country.

By 1952 Massey Harris in the UK was represented by Massey Harris Ltd, barton Dock, Stretford, Manchester. It made its no. 726 self propelled combine with either an 8 1/2ft or 12ft cut.

There are a few Massey Harris combines in preservation. When you see one, think about the long-lasting heritage that this Canadian firm has had on the Scottish harvest field and how it has shaped the Scottish harvest field. Also think about what the Canadian harvest looks like today.

The photographs of the New Holland at work were taken at Hargrave, western Manitoba, Canada, August 2017.