Irish Farming in Days Gone By -- Vintage Farming Documentary *** Featuring Fordson Tractors

by 1937 the orange ford's in the n was the best selling tractor in britain and they were slowly being seen on a few farms over here although before the last war horses were still the main source of power on the irish farms this tractor had a reputation of being hard to start especially when warm this fault was not helped by the changes made to the engine which made her prone to oil the spark plugs it is most likely that this sportsman was made at the dagenham factory in east london although up until the early 1930s fords and ends had been made in cork in southern ireland the corp factory continued to be owned by the ford company up until the mid 1980s building cars and trucks henry ford's father william ford was born in cork and his father john ford was considered to be a quite wealthy farmer however at the height of the great famine in 1847 john ford was forced to uproot his whole family and emigrate to quebec his wife henry ford's grandmother did not survive the trip in 1917 henry ford now a successful and wealthy businessman came back to a depressed area of cork his historian wrote henry ford's family roots drew him back to ireland ford considered what he could achieve in america he could also do here and he built his factory on the site of an old race course the factory initially made tractors but in 1921 cars were made there as well this fortune was first manufactured in september 1938 and is now the property of paddy mckenna and his son eamonn costing 205 pounds which was a large outlay in 1938 it was purchased only on large farms the ford company were quick to point out that a fortune inn could do the work of eight horses and two horsemen it could work all day didn't need to be fed and didn't need any rest it was estimated well by them in any case that with a fortune in doing the work the bills could be cut by half like all early tractors the n was not without flaws these included being difficult to start and cold mornings and the tendency to rear up if the plow encountered an obstruction the engine overheating was another problem this problem was solved by a more efficient radiator holding 42 liters of water this extra weight also helped to keep the front down the plow being used here today is a cockshot trail plug the cockshut plow company was originally founded in 1877 in canada known for its quality designs the company became the leader in the tillage tools section by the 1920s in the 1950s and 1960s they were making tractors although by the 1970s the cockshot name was no longer used the field being plowed here contains two acres and is considered to be very good ground it is in the town land of ballon derry close to the old ballen dairy church the field is being prepared for a crop of oats more likely called corn in the old days and when this tractor was in its prime oaks or corn would have been grown by nearly every farmer it was last plowed in 1992 after a crop of potatoes withdrawal nowadays potato growers would require a much bigger field than this to grow potatoes indeed sad to say many farmers would tell you that growing potatoes these times is hardly worthwhile as most of our potatoes and most of our other vegetables are imported from holland this green fortune inn is the property of wool ribbon it is a 1943 model and you will notice that it has much smaller mud guards than the orange tractor as this tractor was manufactured during the war this was to save materials frank big more plying here with a three for a plow behind his 1964 fordson super major could easily turn over twice the ground that the fortunes could in a day frank is the man behind this project and unlike the farmer of today he is not worried about a profit or lost margin for everyone in this field is working free of charge giving their services willingly and proudly displaying their tractors skills and vintage machinery frank biglore has been chairman of the valley rolling vintage club for the past four years and like all the vintage clubs in this area the money collected throughout the year will go to different charitable organizations with five vintage tractors plowing this two acres will be turned over in a short time this is a 1959 four-cylinder massey ferguson and on its own would be capable of playing this field in a little more than half a day a man with two horses would have done well to play this field in two days this is one of the first red massey ferguson's made in 1957. made at the banner lane factory in coventry it had a four cylinder perkins diesel engine and they are still popular on farms even to this day the warm spring weather preferable for planting a field of oats was a long time coming and frank was glad to see the field drying out enough to allow tractors on to cultivate for the next process namely sowing the corn seeds the disc being pulled by eamonn's fortune would have been first seen in farms along with the early tractors where a disc would have been far too heavy to be pulled by horses sometimes called dust harolds they would rarely be seen on farms today frank and his friend joe mccullough are sowing the seed using a corn fiddle corn fiddles have been well enough documented in our other farm videos but it is worth pointing out that this advertisement in a 1940 farming magazine had them for sale for one pound seven shillings and sixpence frank is filling this man-powered corn drill believed to date from around 1900 made in scotland it is the property of fred faulkner a vintage expert from cookstown it could hold two bucketfuls of grain and you can see the grain dropping onto the ground this is only a demonstration for the field has already been sowed but fred insists that this seed drill is as accurate as a corn fiddle it could not however be used on stormy days fred faulkner also brought some other interesting gadgets with him right we have what we have here is called a seedlip now this was used not so much here perhaps northern ireland but mainly uh maybe on a steep slope or whatever and there's held like this a strap over your shoulder attached on here and you sewed broadcast just one sand one hand right like that now uh this this full i suppose would hold maybe four or five stone of whatever of wheat barley mainly that'd be only for cereals no not for fertilizer fertilizer could have been sold with it but invariably it was just that and that's that is mainly uh perhaps in the welsh or in the hillside and you walked along with the unsold out of this well would have been used around here fred not to my knowledge i i haven't seen one used over here but they are here this one here would have been used perhaps for small for small seed small seed and again the little same principle as the seed box that we saw little brushes inside and when you it blew the seeds out a spread and a fan so you could walk down and do the same as the same principle uh and you could actually spread it backwards and forwards this is uh this can be strapped round this goes over uh you put this over like this did sit in and you held it like this and that that would spread roughly about four or five meters or maybe nearly nearly nearly 10 yards it's a big spread with that and again for the cereals frank bigmore is using a harrow to cover the seed this was sometimes called a break and one run will be sufficient to cover the seeds light enough to pull it could have easily been pulled by one horse frank will cover the whole field in about 15 minutes hopefully the warm weather will stay and the corn should be through the ground in a little over a week's time the warm damp spring weather in may got the field of oats off to a good start and frank big more seen here with fellow enthusiasts will gribbin declan kelly and tony canavan is confident that this field will produce a good crop of oaks franklin's hooking a roller onto declan's green fords and then rolling the field is to smooth it down and level off any stones or other objects which might be sticking up this is to ensure that there are no bumps and especially rocks which could blunt a side or reaper knife which the men tend to display at harvest time this green fortune end in very good condition as the large mud guards which would indicate that she was made before 1942 the picturesque setting of bali ronin on the shores of loch ness is a haven for many different breeds of wildfowl and in the winter attracts a large range of ducks from as far away as russia and iceland hooper's swans are in abundance here from october until march and indeed it is not unusual for some of these beautiful birds to stay here all year round the plow being used is another shot typical of the plows used behind this type of tractor they were a very good plow and are still commonly seen at vintage pine matches this field was an oaks last year and is now being prepared for reseeding with grassy patty is using a mussy harris trail disc which will leave the ground ready for showing this disc belongs to a neighbor call me doberry the ground here is dry and crumbly as can be seen in the way the disc is throwing up the soil the tractor is performing like a new one and the iman paddy and raymond are satisfied that everything is in order the fortune will now go back for painting the tractor is now getting its first coat of primer undercoat the man doing the spraying is liam donnelly himself a vintage enthusiast and the owner of two fords and m's a 1939 and a 1941. the undercoat has now been applied and lame would like to leave the tractor for at least 48 hours so as to allow the paintwork to harden also to ensure that there are no imperfections and that the paint has bonded with the red oxide primer that same weekend frank decided that it was time to harvest his field of oats quite a good number of vintage men turned up and although there were light spots of rain the weather was not bad as frank had predicted in the spring this was a good crop now right and standing up well corn having been beaten down by wind or rain was very difficult to move an early way of cutting the corn was mowing it with a scythe and men skilled with this implement would have been in great demand both for mowing hay and oats scythe men from here and especially from donnie gall would have traveled to england and scotland to mould the harvests there paddy mckenna is showing his skill with the scythe while will gribben is polling this was so that the corn would fall the right way and so make things easier for the tires coming behind polling would usually have been a job for the woman or young boys everybody had a go at the mowing some were better than others this mowing machine behind frank sportsman dates back to the 1950s it could easily have done the work of ten men with sides this was a two-man operation one driving the tractor the other leaving off the tilts of corn usually about the size of a sheath half a dozen people and more if you could get them were coming behind tying the corn into sheaves three sheaves were put up together like a pyramid and this was called a stoke this is a 1926 morris cowley and belongs to dennis bates this car was adapted to operate a mowing machine and on her day could have cut a lot of [Music] corn a black day for the side men and indeed for the tires was when this machine came onto the farms early binders were horse-drawn and powered by a bull wheel which drove all the mechanism litter models were powered by tractors but when they first arrived on farms sadly that meant no work for thousands of livers the implement had a real and sickle bar like the modern grain head on a combine harvester the binder cut the grain the same as the reaper but the big difference was that it let the cut stalks fall onto a moving canvas belt this carried them onto a binding mechanism which tied the sheaves and kicked them out while this binder is doing its job as part of a vintage club display there are still plenty of them binding corn throughout the country for anyone growing oaks for horses or any other reason this is still the best way to get the best out of a field of oats the man driving ammons fordson is brendan mclarnon from desert martin go ahead to watch the full video of this 1940 forzon and tractor being restored click the thumbnail at the end of this video or click the link included in the description box below eamonn's uncle mickey had a field of oats ready for harvesting and eamonn and paddy were proud to get the chance to show off the new fords this binder was used in our first vintage farming video farming down the years back in 1990 the binder now belongs to remin mcnamee oh two weeks later on a bright but bitterly cold saturday in october frank decided to thrash his field of votes eamonn's yellow fortune is providing the power to the thrasher and frank's major is powering joe mcculloch's jones baylor fred faulkner has returned to give a demonstration of flailing flailing corn was a practice used before the invention of thrashing mills the flail was two sticks usually made from hazel and tied together the man thumped the sheep for corn and the vibration knocked off the ears or pickles a good wind was needed to blow the shaft away farm laborers 200 years ago after a long day's working would have been expected to flail corn perhaps until 10 o'clock at night to feed the animals the next day with so many belts on a thrashing machine it was not unusual for one or more to fly off or even break roadside repairs were often called upon however in spite of all his difficulties frank got a good return on his field of votes the following weekend and with the good autumn weather holding it was time to thrash mickey's corn paddy is bringing the corn hutch to the thrasher using a book rig this mill is a creighton built in scotland and belonging to brandon mclarnon thrashers or thrashing machines first came onto the market as far back as 1784 and the first one was invented by a scotsman andrew merkel it was horse powered and separated the grain from the stalks much quicker and cleaner than the flails as well as separating the grain from the stocks the thrasher had its own built-in fan which blew the chaff away and left the clean corn pickles while this machine took away the hard labor of flailing it put thousands of farm laborers out of work in england in 1830 labourers revolted and went around the country smashing up machines and threatening farmers these rioters were dealt with very harshly nine of them were hanged and 450 transported to australia eamonn's new fortune is driving the thrasher and the baler the block of timber is placed in front of the back wheel to keep the pulley belt tight this sports and tractor had no handbrake willie turner another film star from farming down the years is on top of the thrasher along with tom kearney from portland police son barry along with eamonn are forking up the sheaves the men attending the bags are john joe doherty and john mckenna liam donnelly is bringing one of his fortunes forward to thrash a few huts this is his 1939 model recently rebuilt she has got her first coat of undercoat and will be sprayed harvest gold these tractors were commonly known as the orange boards barry's son sean is now assisting with the forking the big tractor is a fortune major with a perkins six-cylinder diesel engine known as the p6 major this tractor has plenty of power and will thrash the remaining house in a short time if you have enjoyed this video please subscribe to our channel for more content on irish farming life please also drop a comment in the comment section below you

Channel: Videos of Irish Farming Life

Views: 134,850

Keywords: traditional farming documentary, Irish Farming in Days Gone By, Oats, Irish Farming, Vintage, Vintage Tractors, Fordson, Fordson N, Videos of Irish Farming Life, Old farming Video, Old, Farm, Rural, Video, Documentary, Fordson Tractors, Thresher, Corn, Threshing Mill, tradiational, farming, Vintage Farming Documentary, Ireland, Irish, Traditional Farming in Ireland, Farming Ireland, historical documentary, History, john thompson videos, Threshing, Mill, rural ireland, Harvesting Oats, Growing

Id: QJew3JjN5oQ

Length: 22min 59sec (1379 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 29 2020