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If you were a farmer in the Lothians in 1919 you would have had a number of implement and machine makers to purchase your machines from. Some were local while others trades across the Lothians and also across Scotland and further afield.

The North British Agriuclturist carried an extensive article on the agricultural traders in the Lothians in 1919. It provides a great deal of information about them, their activities and the history of their company.

“The first on our list is Mr Alex Ballach of Messrs Ballach & Sons, Leith, who has had a very long association with the implement trade. He was trained in agricultural engineering under the late Mr G. W. Murray of Banff, and has had a varied experience in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and later on in Newton-Stewart, whence he removed to Leith about a dozen years ago. No one knows better the requirements of the farmer than does Mr Ballach. He has been eminently successful in the making of corn drills and drill scarifiers, and whatever he puts out is known for its efficiency as well as its finish.
… Mr Alex Newlands of the firm of Messrs Newlands & Sons, St Magdalene Engineering Works, Linlithgow. Mr Newland’s firm was founded by his late gather in 1861 at Inverurie, but in 1880 the latter removed to Linlithgow and acquired the premises of that famous ploughmaker-the late Mr George Ponton. Some years after his father died in 1907 Mr Newlines, along with his brother, Mr George MNewlands, erected larger worrks to increase the capacity of the output of the firm’s implements, which are principally cultivators, chilled ploughs, drill ploughs, horse rakes &c.
… Mr Wm Poole JP, possibly now the best known of all the Scottish agricultural engineers. For the past forty years he has been identified with the introduction and improvement of many of the labour-saving machines now in extensive use by the farmers of the country. On the farm of Castle Mains, Dirleton, in August 1878, Mr Poole conducted the first trial of a sheaf-binding reaper ever held in Scotland, namely, the McCormick wire sheaf-binding reaper; and during the same month at the first trial of sheaf-binders held by the Highland Society on the farm of Liberton Tower Mains, Edinburgh, he secured the Society’s Gold Medal for that machine. Owing to the strong objection to wire-bound sheaves, this machine did not become a success; but, following this, in the early “eighties” Mr Poole sold and started at work for the late Mr Waugh of Eweford, Dunbar, the first twine sheaf-binder ever put to work in Scotland (a McCormick). Closely following the introduction of the McCormick binder, Mr Poole introduced into this country the now better-known Deering twine sheaf-0binder, and, through his efforts in the harvest fields, and suggestions of improvements, this binder is now one of the most popular throughout Great Britain nd Ireland. It may well be said, through his continuous and long experience in our harvest fields, he is one of our greatest authorities on harvesting machinery, and no one now living in Scotland has bestowed greater benefits in this respect on our farmers. In 1915, in response to a requisition by the agricultural engineering trade throughout Great Britain, Mr Poole was elected a director of the Highland Society to represent their interests. During his term in office, he accomplished good work on that board in getting the Society to make an inquiry amongst farmers throughout Scotland as to the efficiency and economy resulting from the use of milking machines. The information obtained was of a satisfactory nature, and, as a result, the use of milking machines has been largely increased. So far as general work on the average farms of Scotland is concerned, Mr Poole has never been satisfied with the oil agricultural tractors that have been introduced into use during recent years, and from a recent interview, we find that he is of opinion that the tractor suitable for all-round work in Scotland is still to come. In that belief, he submitted a motion adopted by the board of the Highland Society to the effect that it should hold trials of British designed and British made oil tractors, and to award substantial prizes to the machines found to be best suited for work in this country. When these trials take place he is of opinion that oil tractors far in advance of those in present use will be produced by the engineers of our own country. At present, Mr Poole is president of the Scottish Agricultural Engineers’ Society.
Mr A. M. Russell, we always look upon as “The Universal Provider” for the varied wants of agriculturists. Shortly before the outbreak of the war he removed his headquarters adjoining the old Corn Exchange, to extensive premises at the east end of the Grassmarket. Mr Russell is a specialist in many lines, and, as our readers well know, is a specialist also in the way he advertises his goods.

Mr Wm Smith is the Scottish representative of the Dairy Supply Co. Ltd, and we may almost venture to call him “the grand old man of the implement trade”. If he does not approve of a Separist policy he at least approves of a policy of the separator, especially is it should happen to be an Alfa Laval. In addition to being a J.P., Mr Smith is a Parish Councillor. He is an acknowlwdged authority on all dairying matters, and the author of a very useful guide to dairying, which has had a large sale.
Mr Jas H. Steele is one of the juniors in the agricultural implement trade, but he has a long experience and successful record behind him. For a long number of years he was with Messrs A. & J. Main Ltd, and later represented Messrs P. & R. Fleming of Glasgow in the Scottish capital. Born and brought up on a Lanarkshire farm, he has a practical knowledge of agricultural requirements, and this gives him a great advantage in the upholding of his business motto, “Everything for the Farm”. In addition to agricultural machinery, his firm hold agencies for Messrs A. Cross & Sons Ltd, Glasgow, and Messrs Gartons Ltd, Warrington, Through enterprise, pushfulness, and attention, Mr Steele has gathered a large clientele, and supported by an able staff, he has “lengthened his cords and strengthened his stakes” by opening a new depot at 61 Harrison Road, close by Merchiston Station, on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

If you were a farmer in the 1960s you would still have recognised a good number of the key names in agricultural trading that had been recorded in 1919. It says a lot about the stature and importance of these business men and their businesses.

Ransomes, Sims & Head, later Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies, of the Orwell Works, Ipswich first exhibited at the Highland Show in 1877 when it was at Edinburgh. By comparison to other English plough makers such as James & Frederick Howard, Britannia Iron Works, Bedford, or other major English agricultural and machine makers, it was a late comer to the Highland Show. By 1877 other major English exhibitors had been exhibiting for a number of years: Richard Garrett & Son, Leiston Works, from 1847 (as also Richmond & Chandler, Salford), Clayton & Shuttleworth from 1850, J. & F. Howard, Bedford, from 1854, E. H. Bentall, Haybridge, Maldon, Essex, from 1858 (as also Picksley, Sims & Co., Bedford Foundry, Leigh, E. R. & F. Turner, St Peter’s Iron Works, Ipswich).

Ransomes had preferred to use a network of Scottish agricultural implement and machine makers and the newly emerging agencies in Scotland to exhibit its manufactures at the Show. In1867 they included A. & J. Main & Co., Glasgow. It was not until it firmly established its footing in Scotland, that it started to have its own stand – a sign of its changing approach to advertising and selling its manufactures. However, like many of the English companies, it did not have a business address in Scotland. (the earliest one to do so was John Fowler & Co., Leeds, opening in India Buildings, Edinburgh, in 1869). Agents were the order of the day.

Changing post-war conditions and opportunities after the Second World War brought changes to the company and its aspirations for Scotland. On 22 December 1947 it incorporated a company within the Ransomes family of companies, forming a subsidiary, one of three: Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies (Scotland) Limited; two of the subsidiaries were concerned with undertaking business in South Africa and Argentina. It was a private company with a share capital of £50,000 divided into 50,000 shares of £1 each. The first directors and shareholders were directors of Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies Ltd: Henry Dick, John Geoffrey Pawlyn, John Henrick Wulff Palwyn, and Humphrey Dawson. A further Director was James Stirrat, an engineer in Edinburgh. The company’s registered office was 161 St John’s Road, Corstorphine. The parent company had the controlling interest, with 49,995 of the 50,000 shares.

In the year ended 31 December 1950 the Scottish company was performing well. The Chairman’s statements noted: “The improvement in the Scottish company’s profits arises partly from the fact that at the end of 1949 the Scottish company had a substantial stock of implements for the MG tractor. Tractor sales have made such headway during 1950 that the Scottish company has realised a great proportion of these stocks of implements … .” However, the year had been a difficult one from a production point of view due to difficulties in obtaining materials, though the volume of production had been maintained.

The Chairman referred to the MG tractor. The implements that were associated with that tractor were manufactured at the Scottish company’s works at Edinburgh. By December 1951 the company’s annual report noted that the outlook for the Scottish company was not as rosy (the company was undergoing significant issues due to the wider operating environment, including shortage of raw materials, high taxation, steeply rising prices etc): “The Scottish subsidiary company, in spite od increased production, shows reduced profits, We have now adjusted selling profits, but it was not possible in the earlier stages to make the necessary adjustment quickly enough to counteract the full extent the heavy increases in costs of manufacture arising in Scotland.”

The company’s annual report for 1952 provided further insights into the Scottish subsidiary: it described itself as successors to the Morton Engineering Co., Corstorphine. That company had been agricultural and general engineers since at least 1922, participating in the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland’s exhibition of farm tractors and tractor implements in 1922 and being awarded a silver medal by that Society in 1927 for an improved plough share. Indeed, post office directories for 1929 and until at least 1940, described the company at its Corstorphine premises as “Ransomes’ Lawn Mower Repairing Depot for Scotland, in conjunction with The Morton Engineering Co.”

The Scottish company did not continue for many more years. The parent company continued to face significant difficulties, many of which were external to the company. A special resolution to voluntarily wind up the Scottish company was passed on 12 May 1954. The assets were transferred to Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies Ltd. The final winding up meeting was held on 10 May 1956.

Though the company ended its presence through the closure of its Scottish subsidiary, Ransomes continued to have a strong presence in Scotland. If you go round the ploughing matches of Scotland you will see the huge impact that Ransomes had on the Scottish ploughing scene (as well as for everyday ploughing): at some matches virtually all the ploughs are Ransomes ploughs. What an achievement!

The photographs of the Ransomes ploughs and tractors were taken at Scotland’s Farming Yesteryear, September 2014, and the Scottish Ploughing Championships, October 2016.

If you were a farmer or agriculturist in Scotland in 1952 and were looking to purchase a set of disc harrows for thoroughly pulverising the soil, and cutting up tough sides or boggy land,you could have chosen a set from Scottish as well as English makers.

There were two Scottish makers. The first was A. Newlands & Sons Ltd, St Magdalene Engineering Works, Linlithgow. It made tractor drawn, tandem discus with a working width of 7 feet 6 inches. The discs ranged from 20 to 24 inches in diameter. The second was A. & W. Pollock, Implement Works, Mauchline. It made two models of disc harrows: tractor drawn with 24×18 inch diameter discs; and tractor drawn with 28018 inch diameter discs.

Harrows were used for breaking down lumps or clods as well as covering newly sown seeds.  According to Stephens’ Book of the Farm in 1908 harrows were “an implement of no small importance; and yet its effects are apparently rude and uncertain, while its construction is of the simplest ordwe.  So simple indeed is the construction, that at a very remote period it appears to have taken that form which, in so far as the simple principles of its action are concerned, is almost incapable of further improvement.”

If you were a farmer in Aberdeenshire in 1898 you would have been well aware of the firm of Allan Brothers, engineers, 102 West North Street, Aberdeen. As well as being engineers, the company was also a gas engine manufacturer, mechanical engineer, oil engine manufacturer and a machinery oil merchant and refiner.

By 1901 Allan Brothers had moved its premises to the Ashgrove Engineering Works in Back Hilton Road, where it continued its activities until the mid 1950s. The company held its final winding up meeting in February 1957.

If you were in a farmer or agriculturist in Inverness at the turn of the twentieth century you would have had a choice of implement makers and dealers from which to purchase implements and machines. One of them was Fraser & McColl.

Fraser & McColl described itself as a general ironmonger and glass and china merchant at 20 and 22 East Gate, in 1889. By 1894 the company also had premises to 20 and 22 Petty Street, and later at Hamilton Street. It undertook a wider range of activities, as an agricultural implement maker, agricultural merchant, ironmonger, retail ironmonger, smith and farrier, smith and horse-shoer.

Fraser & McColl exhibited at the Highland Show in Inverness in 1901 and 1911. This was an excellent opportunity for it to exhibit its prominent wares and also its new ones.

In 1901 itsexhibits focused on the manufactures of Walter A. Wood Mowing & Reaping Machine Co., London. They included Wood’s New Century binder, its Admiral mower, and a steel horse rake. Its other exhibits included Auchinachie & Simpson’s Jubilee manure distributor, fanners from Thos Corbett, Shrewsbury, and a anege of ploughs from Geo Sellar & Sons, Huntly. Other exhibits included oilcan bruisers, lime whitewashing machines, potato sorters, lawn mowers, cake mills, butter workers and other dairy appliances and an assortment of specialities of general ironmongers.

Fraser & McColl provided a range of leading implements and machines for the Highland farmer. You might spot the Frser & McColl nameplate when you are round rallies in the Highlands.

If you were a farmer or agriculturist in Scotland in 1920 you may have been interested to see what the implement and machine makers would have new on the market. Tractors were starting to make an appearance on farms and with them their associated implements. Some of the makers were getting their heads around the changing technologies and seeing what new implements they could invent. Existing implements and machines were also being improved.

The Highland Show was an important showcase for these new implements and machines and in 1920 the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland introduced its new implement awards. In that year six Scottish implement and machine makers entered manufactures for this new award: John McBain & Son, Churnside, Berwickshire; H. W. Mathers & Son, Perth; Alexander Newlands & Sons Ltd, Linlithgow; James H. Steele, Edinburgh; David Wilson, East Linton; and Barclay, Ross & Hutchison Ltd, Aberdeen. By 1920 all these companies were well established and well known to Scottish farmers.

John McBain & Son, well-known for its windmills, entered an improved version of the Monarch Windmill for pumping. It was fit with Hyatt roller bearings, giving improved performance and relieving friction. It had double gear wheels which gave for smooth and steady running.

H. W. Mathers & Son entered a self-propelled engine driven turnip cutter or the barrel type. This could be used for cutting turnips into finger pieces for sheep and slices for cattle. This self-propelled machine was geared to the road wheels by a chain and sprockets which allowed it to be moved from place to place by its engine power. The barrel cutter, of single or double action, was by Messrs Bentall. It had an air-cooled engine, made by the Associated Manufacturing Co. which was not liable to be damaged in frosty weather.

Alexander Newlands & Sons Ltd. entered a new “self-lift” attachment for its tractor cultivator. This was an improved design which was designed to operate the tractor cultivator from the seat of the tractor. The motive power was transmitted from one side-wheel and through a chain drive to the operating crank. This could also be attached to any of the old cultivators.

James H. Steele, an extensive agent, exhibited a machine made by another implement and machine maker: Kenneth McKenzie, engineer, Evanton. This was its portable turnip cleaner and cutter. This comprised a root cleaner with two revolving barrels put in motion by chain-drive. The turnips were put into the hopper where they were cleaned and then conveyed to the cutting disc, which was horizontal. McKenzie stated that the cutter was guaranteed not to choke, and would cut as much as “any other machine on the market”. It was claimed to cut in seven different sizes for cattle or sheep. The machine was portable and could be taken to wherever the turnips were to be cut. It was driven by a 2 1/2hp Amanco oil engine which could be used for various purposes such as chaff cutting and corn crushing.

David Wilson entered a potato raiser. Its function was to raise the tubers an leave them directly behind the machine, thus saving labour in gathering the crop. It was claimed to cause no damage to the tubers and did not bury them.

Barclay, Ross & Hutchison Ltd entered a twin sack lifter made by G. L. Weir.

All of these implements and machines demonstrated the Scottish implement and machine makers taking steps to improve the work practices on the farm. The new implement awards are still awarded by the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, and a silver medal provides recognition of engineering excellence for the Scottish farmer, as indeed farmers throughout the world using Scottish implements and machines.

The photographs were taken at the Scottish National Tractor Show, Lanark, September, 22015, and Daviot vintage rally, October 2016.

In the days when the oat crop was sown by hand, high cut ploughing facilitated the sowing of the crop. When the seed was broadcast the seed rolled to the bottom of the small sharp pointed furrows which were to be cross-harrowed. The cross harrowing broke down the tops of the furrows, evenly covering the seed to a consistent depth.

In Scotland the most noted maker of high cut ploughs was Robert Begg & Son, Implement Works, Dalry.

Robert Begg set up as a ploughmaker in Dalry, Ayrshire in 1864. By 1914 he could advertise in The Scottish farmer: “R. Begg, 50 years reputation, Dalry, Ayrshire”.

By April 1876 Robert was advertising his ploughs in the North British Agriculturist. In 1903 he described himself as an agricultural implement maker, a retail ironmonger, a smith and a smith and farrier. By 1912 he was joined by his sons, naming his business
Robert Begg & Sons. Robert died in early 1927. His business was carried on his son, John. John died by 1941 and the business was transferred to Robert Wilson, Barrhead, who continued it under Begg’s name. In 1951 the business became incorporated as Robert Begg & Sons Limited, but was out of existence by October 1976 and was dissolved in the following year.

Begg’s business was associated with Sharon Street, Dalry, where it is recorded in 1886 and into at least the 1950s. From 1914 his address was the “Implement Works, Dalry.”

Robert Begg took an important step in developing his business in 1912 when he exhibited at his first Highland Show, held in that year at Cupar. This was the start of an association with the show that continued, more or less continuously, until 1960. Begg also took the important step of entering a plough into the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland’s exhibition of farm tractors and tractor implements in 1922. In following years, he also entered ploughs and other exhibits for the Society’s new implement award: in 1923, a double furrow self-lift tractor plough with self-lifting gear, and in 1928, Falconer’s patent mouldboard and Falconer’s coulter.

While Begg’s business changed with the times, so too did his ploughs. In 1914, Robert made a range of ploughs which included drill ploughs, double furrow ploughs, as well as bar point chill ploughs and chill ploughs. His chill ploughs were sold under the name “The Begg”.

In 1926, Begg’s ploughs included a double furrow-self lift tractor plough, with moveable points and swivel disc coulter (sold at £36 10s), a moveable point plough, with double wheels for lea and stubble ploughing (£10 10s), chill plough, plain beam, single wheel, for lea and stubble ploughing (£9). As well as drill ploughs, he also sold baulking ploughs, diamond harrows, zig zag harrows, grubbers and drill harrows.
In 1956 the “Begg” tractor ploughs included power lift ploughs, single furrow general purpose; power lift, double furrow, general purpose, single furrow, bar point digger, single furrow, spring-loaded bar point, three furrow general purpose and double furrow with adjustable land wheel.
Begg’s ploughs were also well-known on the ploughing match fields. For example, in 1925 it sold its “prize chill ploughs” and in 1928 and 1929 its “champion swing ploughs”.

Today, you can still see Begg’s ploughs at some of the ploughing matches and at vintage agricultural machinery rallies around the country. Ask anyone who Begg was and they will say a leading ploughmaker from Ayrshire.

The photographs of of the high cut ploughing were taken at the Scottish Ploughing Championships, October 2016 ad the World Ploughing Championships, Crockey Hill, September 2016. The photographs of the Begg plough were taken at the Scottish National Tractor Show, September 2015.

One of the big names in Scottish agricultural engineering was William Dickie & Sons, Victoria Implement Works, East Kilbride.

William was already established as an agricultural engineer in 1888. By 1897 he had set up the Victoria Implement Works, where production of the company’s manufactures until the late 1960s. The works was named the Victoria Implement Works and Iron Foundry in 1939. By 1905 William had set up a premises in the Gallowgate, at number 498.