Innehållsförteckning för JUNE/JULY 2025 från Farm Collector

Does anyone else think about the amount of history that’s been lost? It’s only natural that not everything would survive the constant march of the times, but there’s still a ton we probably know nothing about today. For example, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. There are an unknown number of versions of those narratives that never made it to our present day. We even have some small references to different versions in surviving texts. But only Homer’s versions survived in their entirety. How many other things were lost in the same way? How many things we know about could’ve been lost? On the brighter side, there are plenty of people out there keeping pieces of history from being lost. On Page 16, Fred Hendricks relays the story of Delbert Miller. He…

Today I was making a sandwich for lunch. Upon opening the butter dish I found a neat, quarter-pound stick of storebought butter, pure and good-tasting. It wasn’t always that easy. The milk of most mammals contains a mixture of fats, proteins, sugars, vitamins and minerals suspended in water. The water is denser than the fats. If whole milk is allowed to sit for a time, the fat globules, in the form of cream, will rise to the surface where they can be skimmed off. The thin fluid that remains after the cream is removed is called skim milk, and it was once fed to calves and pigs. Today it’s fed to diet-conscious humans. When a quantity of cream or whole milk is agitated, the yellowish fat globules join to form…

The Ferguson system, also known as the Ferguson three-point linkage system, is one of the world’s most important developments in tractor design. Even today, most tractors still use the three-point linkage system, though the tractors that carry this linkage system have become far larger and more sophisticated than anything Harry Ferguson could ever have imagined. Harry Ferguson, born in 1884, came from a modest background. He was born on a farm in Growell, in what’s now Northern Ireland. Growing up on the family farm, Ferguson experienced plenty of the hard toil that was central to farming at the time, and he became determined to change the face of agriculture by making it more efficient and less labor-intensive. Ferguson was fascinated by machinery, so when he was given the chance to leave…

Illinois Heritage Days 2025 is July 25-27 in Greenville, Illinois! The American Farm Heritage Museum is featuring WD and WD-45 Allis Chalmers tractors and Upright/Vertical Gas Engine. Displays/exhibitors of all brands are always welcome. Demonstration areas include sawmilling, rock crushing, threshing, hay pressing, plowing, combining, grain grinding and shingle making. There will also be tractor pulls, the LilRed Barn, Hill’s Fort, a military display, one mile train rides, Sunday car show/cruise, craft/flea market vendors, food, music and much more for the whole family. Huge air-conditioned building. Camping/showers available and hotels nearby. Check-out www.americanfarmheritagemuseum.com or follow us on Facebook. Funded in part by Greenville Tourism, Discover Downstate Illinois and the Illinois Office of Tourism. See our ad in the Show Directory on page 176. 54th Annual Sandwich Early Day Engine &…

Seeking Information on John Deere ballast weights I have been intending to do this for the past 2 years and now have finally put this into motion. While on a trip to the panhandle western Nebraska in purchasing an old tractor my father acquired these front-end weights or ballast weights. Not sure what they are. I would like any additional information that you or all of the readers of Farm Collector could offer. As over the years, I have visited many museums and farm, tractor shows, thresher shows, and I have never found anything like these. As you can see in the photos, I have 2 of these and have them bolted together back-to-back and setting on a cart with carpet over the cart. They measure 23 to 24 inches…

The genius of pioneer inventors can confound us. Countless contraptions that revolutionized farming in the 19th and early 20th centuries have become contemporary curiosities, or even mysteries. Here are six sent in by readers. Do you know what they are? Answers to the June/July 2025 items will appear in the October/November 2025 issue. Answers for new items in this issue must be received by July 4, 2025. JUNE/JULY MYSTERY TOOLS To submit photos: Send prints to Farm Collector, 1503 SW 42nd St., Topeka, KS 66609. Send digital images to editor@farmcollector.com. Photos should be taken in a well-lit area against a plain background. Include dimensions and any markings on the piece. We cannot guarantee every photo will be published, nor can we respond to inquiries regarding when photos will be published. No…

After the Evac1 article was originally published in the February/March 2020 issue of Gas Engine Magazine, I received several emails asking for help on other types of buzz coils already built but for some reason didn’t work. My first advice was to throw what they had away and build an Evac1, which is simpler, smaller, cheaper, hotter, and has better long-term reliability. Do I sound a bit biased there? Most of the nonfunctioning circuits that the emails were asking about were built around the automotive relay and a standard 1970s type 12V car coil. The common complaint was that it buzzes but has a very puny or nonexistent spark. Realizing there must be a lot of dead ones laying around out there and that we are all different with some…