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Leading the harvest, or bringing in the stooks to the stackyard to be
stacked, was one of the major tasks in the farming year.  It was a labour-intensive task, requiring all the farm-staff, sometimes working for long hours.  In wet or protracted seasons, leading could take place over a number of weeks.  In particularly poor seasons work continued until Christmas or New Year.

Leading took place at different rates, even within a district.  For example, in Aberdeenshire in September 1884, the Aberdeen journal noted that:

“The weather on Tuesday was cool and breezy, and a deal of grain was led in very good order.  On Wednesday, with the exception of a passing shower or two, which were heavy enough in some places to stop leading, it was also fine, and yesterday was an exceptionally busy day on the harvest field, the weather being everything that could be desired.  Even in sheltered nooks the stuff was sufficiently well dried to allow its being carted home, and near the city leading was proceeding vigorously, but where the ends of the sheaves are full of clover and grass the west side of the stocks are still too wet for leading.  The harvest is all but finished on the north-east seaboard of Aberdeenshire for some twelve miles inland. Leading would be nearly finished this week all over the county, with the exception of the glen districts, if the present weather continues.  On Deeside there is a remainder still to cut, and a good many fields are covered with stooks.  It will be a week hence, probably more, before the harvest is finished about Braemar.  The harvest is now fairly completed in the Turriff district.  Owing to the mild, foggy weather which prevailed during the early part of the month some difficulty was experienced in getting the grain to keep in the stackyard, but the sharp, drying breezes of the past week have helped greatly to cool the heated stacks and put the stocks still afield in splendid condition for leading.”

Leading involved a lot of forking.  It also involved a lot of careful planning to ensure that the teams with the carts or trailers were efficiently loaded and unloaded.  Ideally, there was one or more cart or trailer being loaded in the field at the same time when there was one or more being unloaded at the stackyard.  When teams were too fast or too slow and work was not steady tempers were tried.  There could be “aye another load coming” or workers were standing in the yard.

Carts were loaded with sheaves in a particular way. According to Henry Stephens, writing in The Book of the Farm, in 1889:

“A corn-cart is loaded with sheaves in this way:  The body is first filled with sheaves, their butt-ends to the shaft-horse, and to the back-end of the cart.  When these come to the level of the frame, other sheaves are placed across them in a row along both sides and both ends of the frame, with the butt-ends projecting as far beyond the outer rail as the band, the sheaf at each corner of the frame being held in its place by transfixion upon a spike of the elongated bolt which secures the corner of the outer-rail frame.  Another row of sheaves is placed upon these.  Sheaves are then placed along the middle of the cart with the butt-ends like those in the body upon the corn-ends of the side sheaves to fill up the hollow of the load.
Thus row after row of sheaves is placed, and the hollow in the middle filled well up at last, 12 full stooks making a good load upon an ordinary cart.
Before finishing, it should be seen that the load is neither too light nor too heavy upon the horse’s back.
A load thus built will have all the butt-ends of the sheaves on the outside, and the corn-ends in the inside.”

“Leading” is a word that brings back many memories of the grain harvest.  Ask anyone who worked with at the harvest in the days of the binders and they will tell you about the hard work, skill and frustrations of the work.  But they will also tell you about the pride in undertaking the work: you could tell the status of a farm by the state of the stackyard and the way the stacks had been built.

The photographs of loading the harvest cart were taken at Scotland’s Farming Yesteryear, September 2014.

In the early 1950s farmers and agriculturists in Scotland had a choice in the harvesting system they used to cut their grain crops.  Over much of the country the grain harvest continued to be cut with the binder which had come into Scotland in the 1880s and 1890s and improved.  The second and newer system, was the combine harvester, first used by some of the larger and more progressive farmers and agriculturists.

In 1952 binders continued to be made by four makers in Britain, one of which was Scottish, and world-renowned for their manufacture. J. Bisset & Sons Ltd, Greenback Works, Blairgowrie, Perthshire continued to make a selection of 5ft and 6ft cut machines.  They included tractor draught and an engine driven one with a left hand cut, as well as a hydraulically mounted, p-t-o driven one. 

The 1880s and 1890s saw important developments in machinery to harvest the grain crop. Binders entered the Scottish harvest field.

Scottish agents started to exhibit them at the Highland Show from 1882 onwards.  By 1899 there were 11 Scottish machines being exhibited, though by all one maker, J. Bisset & Sons, Blairgowrie. Bisset exhibited its first binder at that show in 1887 and continued to market it as the only binder ‘entirely manufactured in Scotland’.

From the 1960s the New Holland name has been a feature of the Scottish harvest field with its combine harvesters and balers.

By 1968 the company already had already a wide network of dealerships throughout the country, with the focus on the eastern arable area. They were located at: West Cumberland Framers Ltd, Heathhall, Dumfries, Newton St Boswells, Kilmarnock

© 2016 Heather Holmes

Agricultural newspapers are a great source of information on Scottish agricultural implement and machine makers and dealers.  They record, at the time of publication, a wide range of information about the advertisers and their activities.  These include, business names and addresses, activities, implements and machines sold, dealerships, awards given, shows being attended (such as the Highland).  They also record information about the standing of a company and its reputation as well as the reputation of its manufactures.
The major tractor manufacturers that advertised in the Scottish agricultural press in the past, such as Fordson and Ford, David Brown and International Harvester each had their own advertising strategies and messages that they wanted to give to the Scottish farmer and agriculturist.
An important message was to convey the wide availability of their tractors, and though this their popularity (as well as the easy availability of spares and servicing!).  Ford and Fordson often printed lists of all its dealers (these were especially extensive in the 1950s and 1960s). I nternational Harvester also included these.

In 1960 International Harvester had a network of 26 dealers throughout Scotland.  These were:
George Sellar & Son Ltd, 30 Great Northern Road, Aberdeen
Rickerby Ltd, High Street, Annan
Allan W. Reid (Ayr) Ltd, 58 Main Road, Whitletts
Grassick’s Garage Ltd, Commercial Street, Blairgowrie
Peter Small Ltd, Commerce Street, Brechin
John Huie & Co. Ltd, 60/64 Longrow, Campbeltown
James Gordon (Engineers) Ltd, New Market Street, Castle Douglas
John Rutherford & Sons Ltd, Station Garage, Cornhill on Tweed
A. Anderson, The Garage, Dingwall
Rickerby Ltd, Carnegie Street, Dumfries
John Rutherford & Sons Ltd, Rhymer’s Mill, Earlston
James Bowen & Sons Ltd, 45/49 Pitt Street, Edinburgh
Peter Small, Kirriemuir Road, Forfar
Wm Reid (Forres) Ltd, Forres
Allan W. Reid (Ayr) Ltd, Bridgemill, Glenluce
George Sellar & Son Ltd, Granary Street, Huntly
J. & W. Tait, Broad Street, Kirkwall
James Jack (Hyndford) Ltd, 7 Hyndford Place, Lanark
George Sellar & Sons Ltd, Laurencekirk
A. & J. Bowen & Co. Ltd, Markinch
George Sellar & Son Ltd, Victoria Street, Maud
Grassick’s Tractors Ltd, Crieff Road, Perth
Wilson’s Agricultural Services Ltd, Harvester House, Sandbank
Arneil Tractors Ltd, 50 Kirk Street, Strathaven
Wallace & McLaren Ltd, Main Street, Thornhill
John Coghill & Co., Thurso East, Thurso.

The distribution is an interesting one: most of the dealers are in eastern Scotland (where the best agricultural land was); there are few in the north of Scotland, though Orkney and Thurso are covered; there is no representative in Glasgow, though there is one at Lanark; the dealers are located in agricultural centres and some of the county towns; a small number of the dealers had a number of branches, especially in Aberdeenshire and Forfarshire; most of the dealers were limited companies.

An advertisement can provide a wide range of information about the making and selling of agricultural implements and machines (including tractors).  Next time you see one, think about what it says about a business and its activities.

The photographs were taken at the Ayrshire Vintage Rally, July 2014 and 2015.

© 2016 Heather Holmes

Every tractor has its own story.  You could say that every tractor has its own personal history.  It includes details of where and how it was purchased, its cost, where it spent its working life, changes of owners as well as its servicing history.  And into the preservation era, there are details of entry into preservation, refurbishment, shows attended, road runs and other charity events attended, and prizes awarded.  And there are lots of anecdotal stories about what it was like working with the tractor, good times and bad.

Around the rally field we get some idea of aspects of the personal histories of tractors from the show catalogues.  They include their details of make and model as well as the name of owner and date of production.

There is also evidence on the tractors themselves.  Dealer plates provide an important source of information on the provenance of some of the tractors.  Not all makers or dealers put a dealer plate on their tractors, but some did.  They included Fordson and Ford. And into preservation, there are still a good number of their plates to be seen.

Fordson and Ford had an extensive network of tractor dealers in Scotland which grew extensively in the 1930s when tractors were starting to be used in increasing numbers.  By 1951 that network was extensive, with dealerships in all parts of the country.  If you were looking to buy a Fordson in that year you would find dealers located in these places, and from these dealers:

The Harper Motor Co. Ltd, Holborn Junction, Aberdeen
A. Baird & Sons Ltd, High Street, Annan
Dalblair Motors Ltd, 44 Dalblair Road, Ayr
John Harper & Sons (Blairgowrie) Ltd, Perth Street, Blairgowrie
John McBain & Son Ltd, Chirnside, Duns
John Rutherford & Sons Ltd, Home Place, Coldstream
George McLean Ltd, Craig Street, Dundee
Macknight (Motors) Ltd, York Place, Dumfries
Alexanders of Edinburgh Ltd, 64 Fountainbridge, Edinburgh
Elgin Central Engineers Ltd, High Street, Elgin
J. Millar Ltd, Callendar Road Garage, Falkirk
A. T. Mungall Ltd, 167-9 Castle Street, Forfar
George & Jobling, 140-160 Bothwell Street, Glasgow
A. W. Taylor & Son, High Street, Invergordon
Chapman of Inverness Ltd, Eastgate, inverness
Harry K. Brown (Motors) Ltd, Raith Motor Works; Nicol Street, Kirkcaldy
The Dunlop Motor Co., Ltd, 3 Nelson Street, Kilmarnock
James Martin (Kirkintilloch) Ltd, Kelvin Valley Works, Kilsyth Road, Kirkintilloch
County Garage (Lanark) Ltd, Hyndford Road, Lanark
Paisley Motor Co. Ltd, 85 Causeyside, Paisley
Frew & Company Ltd, 14 Princes Street, Perth
Millar’s Garage (Stirling) Ltd, Union Street, Stirling
Thomas Fairgrieve & Sons Ltd, Cockholm Works, Stow
James McHarrie (Stranraer) Ltd, County Garage, Stranraer
Wm Dunnett & Co., 20 Trail Street, Thurso
Shearer Brothers Ltd, Maybank Works, Turriff
Mackay & Jardine Ltd, West Cross, Wishaw

Next time you are looking carefully at the tractors down the tractor lines at a rally, have a look out for their nameplates.  There are a lot of local tractors at local shows.

The photographs of the Ford nameplates were taken at rallies throughout Scotland, 2014-16.

© 2016 Heather Holmes

Remember the long hours spent stooking the sheaves in the harvest field?

There was quite an art to stooking.  You had to ensure that the stooks got the best of the late summer sunshine and could dry out easily and evenly.  You had to get the sheaves standing the right way so that they would stand up against one another.  You had to watch where you placed the band-knots so that in a wet season the sheaves would not be injured.  You also had to make sure that if it was windy the stooks did not blow apart: re-stooking was always harder that stooking the first time.

But stooking was a key part of the harvest until combine harvesters were used.  Stooking let the grain and straw dry out sufficiently before it was put into the stack in the stackyard for the winter and spring months.  You wanted all your sheaves to be dried properly: a heated stack injured the grain and could go on fire (if hot enough).

© 2016 Heather Holmes

Claas combines were already being sold in Britain in 1952 through J. Mann & Son Ltd, Saxham, Bury St Edmunds.

By 1958 these combines were being distributed by a number of agricultural implement and machine makers scattered throughout Scotland.  The Scottish distributor was R. G. Garvie & Sons, Aberdeen, the well-known and leading threshing mill maker. In addition, there were county agents in six central localities to ensure a geographical reach of the eastern arable area.  These were: 

© 2016 Heather Holmes

If you were looking to buy a combine harvester in 1952 you would have had to look at machines made in other parts of Britain and Europe, with machines being imported through dealers.

You could choose between tractor drawn or self-propelled models, with the former being more common at this time.  Tractor drawn ones could be powered from the pto or engine driven. Their cuts varied from 4ft to 9ft (quite a change from those of today!).