Fordson tractors had been advertised for purchase in Scotland since June 1918. Although there was an established network of agents, different ones undertook their own advertising and promotional activities. They highlighted the advantages of the tractor, for example in its ease of working and efficiency on the field. For example, on 29 June 1918 John Munro Limited, Oban, noted in an advert: “The Fordson tractor enables you to get over the ground in the shortest possible time. Light in weight, turns in narrow headland, can be used on any land which a horse can work. Starts on petrol, runs on paraffin.” In December that year W. H. Cox of Lanark noted how in the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire they “have proved their usefulness” and that they were “a sound investment”. In March 1919 H. K. Brown at Thornton, Fife, advertised that it was “the most efficient tractor on the market. Get one now to make up for lost time owing to weather conditions. Suitable for all manner of farm work.”
On 10 March 1923 the Aberdeen business of Harper Motor Co., Holburn Junction, wrote a lengthy article on the value of the Fordson tractors. It was published in the Aberdeen press and journal. It lists a wide range of uses:
“Fordson tractors
Their value to farmers and others
The Ferguson Tractor is now a familiar sight in agricultural work. The hard-headed Scottish farmers appreciate its money and time-saving merits. It ploughs. Harrows, grubs, rolls and mows their fields, saws their paling bars and firewood, drives the mill, pumps water and generates electric current where this is installed.
Using the tractor enables the farmer to market much more produce, giving him in hand more coin of the realm, a commodity proverbially scarce in farming communities. He is also independent of the travelling mill, for which he used to have to be ready sometimes days before it turned out. He can thresh as he wants to, having the power available under his own control at any time.
The fact that the Fordson tractor has as many, or more, possibilities in industrial work does not, however, appear to be so well known. This wide field has only been touched so far, and with the view of acquiring actual data the Harper Motor Co., Holburn Junction, who are the agents in Aberdeen for Ford cars and Fordson Tractors, have made a careful survey of the work done by tractors supplied by them purely for industrial purposes.”
