Scottish agricultural implement makers

Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies, Ipswich, and other companies were aware of the potential for the development of small tractors and associated implements and machines for the crofter and small holders. Ransoms brought out its MG series of tractors to meet this need, manufacturing implements for them at its premises at Crostorphine in the early 1950s.

In Scotland agricultural engineers were also looking at the same problem. On 3 April 1954 the Falkirk herald carried an article which reported: “The first “baby” tractor, designed and built specifically for crofters and small farmers, has been produced at Bonnybridge. Delivery of the first production model was made last week to a farmer in Argyllshire. It is made and assembled at the St Andrew’s Engineering Works, Bonnybridge. Apart from the three horse power petrol engine and the tyres, the tractor is of entirely Scottish manufacture. Designer Mr J. M. Rollo, to whom the Works belong, is drawing on the facilities of his Easdale and Inverasdale factories to make parts of the implement but the bulk of the work is done at Bonnybridge, where a new building has been erected for the project. Mr Rollo made personal delivery of the first sale and demonstrated its capabilities on the purchaser’s croft. He claims that his “baby” can perform the same tasks as larger tractors; its size recommends its use on smaller farms. It is expected, from a recent survey, that the Scottish demand for an implement of this kind is likely to be in the region of 200 a year. It is also expected that there will be a considerable market for the machine in the export field. An anonymous donation to the Highland Fund of £10,000, for the purchase of 50 of these tractors, to be distributed to individual crofters, has enabled production to get into full swing right away. The machine is to be on show at the Industries Exhibition which is being held in Glasgow in September. Its features include independent front wheel suspension and the plough is raised and lowered hydraulically. In every respect it is similar to the larger tractors. There is a river’s seat, and a light weight trailer, made of synthetic wood, is available for transport purposes. An acre of land can be ploughed on a petrol consumption of two gallons. The implement is known as the olio Croftmaster.”

The Rollo Croftmaster was first exhibited at the Highland Show in Edinburgh in 1955. Rollo Industries Ltd continued to exhibit it at the shows in 1956 (Inverness), 1957 (Dundee) and 1960 (Ingliston). It was entered for the new implement award of the Highland Show in 1956 as the Rollo Croftmaster tractor fitted with new Rollo patented plough mounting linkage. The tractor cost £190; the hydraulic lift and patented plough linkage cost £30 and the mounted plough £18 10s.

Later examples were made by Barrmor Tool Works Ltd, St Andrew’s Works, Bonnybridge.

There are still one or two Rollo Croftmasters around the vintage machinery rally fields in Scotland. Keep an eye for them. They provide quite a contrast to the larger farm tractors!

The names Andrew Pollock, A. & W. Pollock and Pollock Farm Equipment Ltd are famous in Ayrshire and indeed around the world.

Pollock Farm Equipment is celebrating 150 years of Pollock in Ayrshire in 2017. As part of its 150 year celebrations the company is planning an open day with exhibits of vintage Pollock equipment. If you have any old Pollock implements and machines, Pollock Farm Equipment would like to hear from you.

If you read one of the major agricultural texts for the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries, you will note the use of a number of interesting plans that were used to feed livestock. These included gorse and whins.

In 1889 Henry Stephens spoke highly of gorse and whins. He wrote: “Like many other useful and beautiful plants ingenious to this country, furze-in some parts called whins, in others gorse-is not so highly esteemed as it ought to be, perhaps on account of its value of furze being so common, and of its tendency to grow where it has not been sown and is not wanted. Nevertheless, as food for cattle, sheep, and horses, it possesses very considerable value, and for this purpose it may be grown in any part of the country with success, financially and otherwise.” He added that “the value of furze is as a green food for the winter months. It should be cut at least once every year, so that the plants may not be allowed to become woody and hard. When sown thickly on fairly good land the shoots come up fine and juicy, growing to a length of from 2 to 2 1/2 feet.”

If you were a farmer in Scotland in the mid 1850s you may have been interested in the latest developments in steam cultivation. In April 1853 members of the Fisken family demonstrated their water and steam plough on the farm of Drumphin, parish of Wester Foulis, Perthshire. Further exhitions were held in following years, as before the Stirling Agricultural Association in August 1856.

But it was a machine developed by an English farmer, William Smith of Woolston, near Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, whose steam cultivator was the first one that came into commercial production that was used by Scottish farmers (there were others such as Boydell’s). Smith’s design was a simple one. As the Perthshire advertiser states in 1856:

“[Mr Smith] works his implements by men’s of a common seven-horse portable engine and a stationary windlass, fixed at one corner of a field. A couple of wire ropes are led from two drums on the windlass in opposite directions round four anchored pulleys, and meet at the implement, thus passing all round the field-two anchors being fixed and two shifted from time to time along each headland as the ploughing proceeds. The anchors are like large four-toothed rakes, and it requires a man at each end of the work to dig holes and shift them forward, Mr Smith uses cultivators of a peculiar kind, taking about three feet breadth at a time; and he has an ingenious and quick mode of turningthem at the end of the furrow. He is able to scarift or baulk plough on an average four acres per day of twelve hours.”

Smith leased out production of his steam cultivator to a number of different engineering companies between 1857 and 1871. Between 1859 and 1861, they included J. & F. Howard, Bedford. By 1958 the Edinburgh Evening Courant could note that “the two really competing inventions are Howard’s (of Bedford) windlass and wire-rope cultivator (on the system of Mr Smith, of Woolston), and Fowler’s steam plough”.

Smith advertised his tackle in the Scottish press, including the Aberdeenshire and Perthshire newspapers in 1858, and in the North British Agriculturist in the following year. When smith transferred production to J. & F. Howard, that eminent company started to advertise Smith’s tackle, sometimes with its own manufactures, and at other times on its own. Its advertising started in 1860 and continued in 1861.

Howard bought out the production of Smith’s tackle, making its own improvements to it. Howard started to manufacture its own “Howard’s new patent steam cultivators”, which it continued to advertise until 1865. In time Howard developed its own steam cultivation engine and tackle, based on Smith’s cultivator. This was launched in 1876.

J. & F. Howard was a prolific advertiser of its steam ploughing tackle in the Scottish agricultural press between 1859 to 1881. Its early adverts focused on the number of sets of tackle that it had sold, their geographical distribution, and the advantages of the systems.

Scottish farmers used both Smith’s system and Howard’s system. The Marquis of Stafford (later the Duke of Sutherland) used “Smith’s steam plough, manufactured by J. & F. Howard, Bedford” at New Tarbat in 1858 (in the following year there were 40 sets at work in England). Howard’s tackle was more widely used. In August 1861 the Scottish Farmer reported that some “four or five sets of Howard’s steam tackle for ploughing or cultivating that have yet found their way into Scotland”. In 1862 the first set of ploughing tackle introduced into East Lothian, by Mr Sadler of Ferrygate, was a set of Howard’s. Its introduction was widely celebrated.

The steam ploughs of John Fowler, later John Fowler & Co. (Leeds) Ltd, also made a significant contribution to the steam ploughing and cultivation scene in Scotland, and came to dominate it. That is for another day.

The William Smith of Woolston tackle and the Howard’s farmer’s engine and round-about tackle were exhibited at the World Ploughing Championships, September 2016.

In 1929 James Ferries & Co., Inverness, exhibited the “Marvel” threshing machine at the Highland Show. It was invented by James Ferries. It was made from well-seasoned pitch pine, morticed and teoned and firmly secured at the joints by bolts, The linings are of white-wood or red-wood. The Scotsman described ts working parts:

“There are three shakers running the full length of the mill, and mounted on a three-throw crank-shaft, which is run on ball bearings. The centre throw of the crank-shaft is so designed as to convey motion to the riddle-casethrough a long connecting rod. The riddle-case is built in one part, and is so constructed that the chaff and cavings are delivered underneath the straw delivery shute. The light grain is delivered from a spout at the tail end of the riddle-case, while the finished sample of grain is delivered at the drum-end, where it can be conducted into elevators either for bagging the grain or delivering to a loft. The fan is fixed between the mill frame, and is the full width of the machine. The elevators are urge cup and belt type, the grain being fed into the elevator from the sprout attached to the riddle case.”

Duncan MacNeill was an agricultural implement agent and dealer at 22 Halbert Street, Glasgow in 1931. By 1933 he had opened up a premises in Orchard Place, Stirling, from where he was an authorised Fordson agent. Duncan saw opportunities to develop his business and in 1939 he incorporated his company as MacNeill Tractors Limited. An advert in the Scottish Farmer in the following year describes his company as “McNeill Tractors Ltd of Glasgow and Stirling, showrooms 147 Bothwell Street, Glasgow”. By July 1940 the company was “McNeill Tractors, St Peter’s Lane, Glasgow”, the Bothwell Street entrance having been discontinued for urgent National reasons. The company continued to trade until at least 1960.

While the company’s early focus was on Fordson tractors, it came to be a major forceful the distribution of David Brown tractors in Scotland. In 1956 the company advertised in the Scottish Farmer as “MacNeill Tractors Ltd, agricultural and automobile engineers, 20 Graham Square, Glasgow, distributors for David Brown and Albion implements; stores and woks, 57-61 Meiklewood Road, Glasgow. Also stores and services depot, Edward Road, Stirling.”

The company’s relationship with David Brown Tractors was an interesting one, starting during the Second World War. In 1943 Duncan MacNeill set up a sister company Duncan MacNeill Tractors (Edinburgh) Limited, which was incorporated in March 1943. It had a share capital of £5,000 divided into 5000 ordinary shares of £1 each. Its articles of association included an article which showed a close association with David Brown Tractors: “so long as David brown and Mess MacNeil Tractors Ltd, are equally interested in the share capital of the company, two Directors shall be nominated by David Brown and two by Messrs MacNeil Tractors Ltd. The Directors so nominated shall not be subject to election by the company on general meeting, nor shall they be subject to the regulations for retiral and rotation of Directors contained in these Articles.” The first of the Directors were the Company Secretary of David Brown – Sydney Braithwaite – and the commercial manager – Fredrick Bowyer Marsh. The qualification of a Director was to be the holding of 250 shares in the capital of the company. From MacNeil tractors were nominated Duncan MacNeil, engineer, and John Stewart Bauchop, manager. The first return of allotments for April 1943 shows MacNeil, Bauchop, Braithwaite and Bowyer with each 250 shares. In addition, David Brown Corporation of Great Britain Ltd had 500 shares. Macneill Tractors Ltd had a further 500 shares.

In April 1946 Duncan MacNeill Tractors (Edinburgh) Limited passed a special resolution to change its name to D. B. Tractors (Scotland) Ltd, subject to the approval of the Board of Trade. That approval was given in May 1946. The following months saw changes in the shareholding structure of the company. Duncan MacNeill resigned his Directorship in November 1946. The annual return of 21 December 1946 saw the shares of MacNeill, Bauchop, Braithwaite and Bowyer as well as MacNeill Tractors Ltd all being transferred to the David Brown Corporation of Great Britain Ltd. A further return of 13 September 1947 showed that the David Brown Corporation of Great Britain) Ltd had 1998 of the 2000 shares, with its commercial manager and sales manager each having a further share.

Further changes were brought about in the next few years. The company changes name again again. A resolution was passed on 13 December 1949 to change the name to David Brown Tractors (Scotland) Ltd. The approval of the change was made in early January 1950. The annual report of December 1951 showed a profit of £1,119,17.8. Though the company ceased to trade on 30 June 1953, it continued to file annual returns until January 1971. The company was dissolved on 30 January 1973.

What happened to Duncan MacNeill? He set up other companies to sell and deal in plant and agricultural machinery. In the mid to late 1950s he set up McNeill farm Industries, 69 Payne Street, Glasgow (later Bath Street and works at Port Dundas). It was sequestrated in December 1959. From 1962 to 1967 set up and ran D. MacNeill Industries Ltd, plant and agricultural machinery merchants, 95 bath Street, Glasgow.

The business activities of Duncan MacNeill and David Brown provide interesting insights into business organisation to sell tractors into Scotland. You might still see a McNeill nameplate on tractors around the rally fields.

The photographs of the David Drown from McNeill Tractors Ltd and accompanying invoices was photographed at the Scottish National Tractor Show, September 2013. The line up of David Brown tractors was photographed at the Daviot Vintage Rally, October 2016.

New Year’s Day was one of the big holidays in the farming year. While some farmers and the farm workers had a holiday on this day, in some years work continued apace. My father’s farming diary for Pilmuir, Balerno, indicates that on January 1 1957 he was out carting turnips. However, in the more enlightened years of 1959 and 1960 he had a holiday. The one in 1958 was also carried over to January 4 – that was a major holiday.

January was a month of looking after the livestock, feeding and mucking them out, threshing and baling, as well as looking forward to the new agricultural year. Ploughing was one of the major tasks to be undertaken during the month. In 1958 my father was busy with the lea ploughing over a number of days.

Just think about how indispensable barrows are on the farm for moving foodstuffs and other produce around the farm.

If you were a farmer or agriculturist looking to purchase a new barrow in 1910 you could choose one from a number of makers in Scotland.

While hay was traditionally carted loose into towns and cities, new means were developed to compress hay into bales to make it easier to transport. Hay baling presses started to emerge and be more widely iused in the 1890s. By 1908 Henry Stephens’ The Book of the Farm could state about them:

“Much ingenuity and enterprise have therefore been exerted in the devising of hay-presses-additional impetus being given to these efforts by the railway companies offering a reduced rate for carriage when 50cwt or more is packed on to an ordinary railway waggon. For this purpose, such pressure as will pack nearly alb of hay or straw into a cubic foot is sufficient.
At various trials of hay-presses have been conducted throughout the country, and in this way several efficient appliances for the purpose have been brought into notice. Large presses for steam-power have been introduced, but smaller presses for horse- or hand-power are more widely used.”

If you were a farmer at the end of the Fist World War you may have had an interest in tractors that were starting to be used on Scottish farms, or had used one of them. The Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland was also interested in the tractors and tillage implements, running a series of trials from 1915 into the early 1920s.

The Society’s trial held between 17 and 20 October 1922 was provided an important forum for the exhibition of tractors – including the Glasgow tractor – and implements, especially ploughs, made by Scottish and other makers.

The Scottish ploughs were made by some of the leading plough makers of the day, showing their recognition that tractor ploughs were the way forward for the Scottish agriculturist. The ploughs included ones from Robert Begg & Son, Implement Words, Dalry, had a double-furrow self-lift tractor plough which was described as “strongly constructed”. The committee described it as “a well-constructed, easily adjustable plough, readily adapted for either stubble or lea, and suited for all classes of soil. It did good work both on stubble and lea, and the plots ploughed by it were considered to be amongst the best on the ground.”

Morton Engineering Company, Ladylands, Corstorphine, Edinburgh, had a new combined utility implement for general purpose tractor work which embraces a 2-furrow adjustable plough and subsoiler, 9- or 11- tine cultivator, 9-tine stubble scarifier, 5- or 7- tine grubber. The committee described this new plough, convertible into a grubber or cultivator” as being “well designed, simple in construction, and readily adjustable. It did very good work on stubble and excellent work on lea, where its performance reached a very high standard. The Committee are of opinion that a combined implement of this description is a creditable production, and one likely to commend itself to farmers”.

A. Newlands & Sons Ltd, St Magdalene Engineering Works, Linlithgow, demonstrated a self-lift 7-tine grubber, constructed on the same principles as the old Scotch parallel frame grubber, but made specially strong for work with a tractor, as well as two self-lift cultivators, one with 9 tines, the other with 11 tines, and a self-lift brake harrow to work in conjunction with a cultivator.

G. Sellar & Son, Huntly, Aberdeenshire, demonstrated its Sellar B.D.F. type, 2/3-furrow self-lift tractor plough which had a main frame of simple construction combined with strength; it was made of best quality Bessemer steel. It also had a self-lift tractor grubber. The Committee described the 3-furrow, convertible to 2-furrow plough as a “good plough”. It was “easily and quickly adjustable to varying widths and depths. Its work did not reach the highest standard at the demonstration, the principle objection noted being that it did not sufficiently bury the surface vegetation.” The grubber was described as “a well-made powerful 5-tine self-lift grubber, wich broke an unploughed stubble to a depth of 7″ or 8″, and did its work in a first-rate manner”.

A number of Scottish implement and machine makers demonstrated implements from other makers, usually from companies outside Scotland. For example, Henry Alexander & Company, Nottingham Place, Edinburgh, a Fordson dealer, had an Oliver no. 7 2 furrow 10″ to 12″ adjustable plough. Henderson Brothers, 29 Barnton Street, Stirling, had a Massey-Harris 2 furrow adjustable plough, a Massey-Harris 9-tine self-lift cultivator, a Massey-Harris tandem disc harrow and a Massey-Harris spring-tooth harrow. Alexander Jack & Sons, Maybole, had a Dux- self-lift tractor plough with subsoiling attachment. Wallace (Glasgow) Limited, 34 Paton Street, Glasgow, had an Oliver no 78 3-furrow self-lift tractor plough, 10″ wide.

The Committee considered that there had been a significant advance in ploughs since the earlier trials of the Society. It reported that “much good work was performed. All ploughs are now fitted with a self-lift attachment. Many of them are also provided with and efficient means of adjustment to different widths and depths. In view of the varying conditions of soil in Scotland and the variety of work to be undertaken, a plough that is not adjustable must be regarded as being unsuitable. There is still room for improvement, but in the case and rapidity with which adjustment may be effected. In this connection it may be noted that a tractor plough, taking 2 or 3 furrows, requires more adjustment than a horse plough.”

Next time you are at a ploughing match and you see trailing ploughs, think about the early days of the tractor ploughs and the important work of the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland in promoting them to the Scottish agriculturist.

The photographs of trailing ploughs and ploughing with them were taken at the Scottish Ploughing Championships, October 2016.