This work deals with a story all too familiar to farmers in Britain - that of the break-up of a family farm and the passing of the land into the ownership of agribusiness and strangers. Although the theme is serious, it reflects the author's sardonic and humorous view of farming struggles.

Country Dance

Engineering & Transportation

Brewis, Henry

Engineering

Old Pond Publishing

For students of horticulture, grounds-keeping and estate management, this book offers an unrivalled introduction to the machinery with which they will have to work. It covers the principles, mechanics, uses and maintenance of a very wide range of equipment. Topics covered include: tractors and power units - engines - lubrication and cooling - starting and charging systems - transmissions - steering, wheels and tyres - tractor hydraulic systems - tractor maintenance - ploughs and ploughing - cultivation machinery - fertiliser distributors - drills and planters - spraying machinery - grass-cutting machinery - turf-care equipment - glasshouse equipment - irrigation - vegetable and fruit machinery - machinery for estate and grounds maintenance - the workshop - power for horticulture. Machinery for Horticulture is in its second edition, an authoritative, concise text magnificently complemented by 360 illustrations.

Machinery for Horticulture (Old Pond Books)

Brian Bell

Stewart Cousins

Starting with the early experiments that led to the Model F at Dearborn in 1917, this book follows the development of the Fords on through to the Model N and the E27N to the widely successful Diesel Major and its little brother, the Dexta. This accounts details Fordson production in Britain, covering both Cork and Dagenham, and making full mention of the personalities involved. Many of the little-known prototypes are described as well. A major section of the book is devoted to the American tractor line, re-established in 1939 with the 9N built in collobaration with Harry Ferguson. The book concludes in 1964, just before the introduction of the "worlwide" 6X range.

The Ford Tractor Story: Dearborn to Dagenham 1917 - 1964

Business & Money

Gibbard, Stuart

Biography & History

In 1964 Ford replaced its separate British and American tractor lines with the new 6X range, a worldwide family of tractors designed for manufacture in Basildon, Antwerp and the USA. It marked the beginning of an exciting new period in the history of Ford tractors. The next 30 years saw a host of new models and features as the line expanded and evolved towards the machines of the late 1990s with their computer-age technology. It was also a time during which Ford's agricultural business grew into an organization of global proportions, taking over both the New Holland and Versatile equipment companies. In 1994, Fiat acquired Ford's agricultural machinery interests and merged them with Fiatagri to form a new company under the New Holland name. In the late 1990s, New Holland is the leading manufacturer in Europe and many of the World's markets. In this book, the companion to the first part, the author gives an account of all the main Ford and New Holland models as well as the company changes and the personalities involved. It provides a comprehensive resource on this period of tractor history.

The Ford Tractor Story: Part Two: Basildon to New Holland 1964 to 1999

This book deals with the history and development of the AEC Mandator range from inception to demise. From its earliest days AEC was an engineering-led concern that maintained close relationships with its customers. The original AEC Mandator lorry first appeared in 1931 to fulfil the special requirements of hauliers that wanted low-height chassis vehicles for carrying machinery or bodying as furniture vans. By the 1960s the Mandator Mk V was at the vanguard of AEC's successful assault on home and export commercial vehicle markets. Later, the Ergomatic tilt-cabbed design consolidated the success of AEC's heavyweight tractive units. Fast, powerful and with excellent brakes, as well as looking the part, these lorries became immensely popular. But as Graham Edge says in his Introduction, 'It was a great pity that the Mandator development stagnated in a period of rapid advances and when production ended in 1977 the model had become somewhat outdated.' With a selection of chapters devoted to the fundamental models, including the Matador Mk III, the Mandator Mk III and the Mammoth Minor, the story of the AEC Mandator is told through comprehensive narrative and stunning photographs of the machines at work. This book also includes an appendix devoted to the chassis designations and wheelbases of these machines and another on their engine details.

The AEC Mandator (Old Pond Books) (Commericial Vehicles Archive)

Edge, Graham

Transportation

It was 1942 and Britain was running out of food. Twenty-year-old Irene Gibbs had always fancied working on the land rather than in the cigarette factory so she volunteered for the Women's Land Army. She was billeted with 30 other town gals at the Old Rectory, Halesworth in Suffolk. Irene and her land-army friends had had no farm experience and were unable to distinguish a bull from a cow - something they soon learned. Irene describes with wry affection how they came to terms with back-breaking weeks of hoeing, the dusty work of threshing and the more relaxed days of harvest. The land girls were high-spirited and adventurous. Besides farm work they took in their stride the army on maneouvres and the US airforce, not to mention hitch-hiking, wall-climbing and some long-suffering hostel wardens. They also had to deal with a wide range of farmers who varied from the hospitable to quite the opposite.

Land Girls at the Old Rectory (Old Pond Books)

History

Irene Grimwood

Europe

The little grey Fergie is Britain's best-loved tractor, the light user-friendly machine that finally replaced the horse on farms. This highly illustrated account covers the full history of Harry Ferguson's tractor products from his pioneering work before the 1930s to the merger with Massey in 1957. The author has had access to fresh archive material and has interviewed many of the surviving men who were associated with Ferguson. The appeal of the Fergie lay in its lightness and utility, and also in the system of mechanized farming of which it was a part. Throughout the book, reference is made to the implements which lay at the heart of the system. Stuart Gibbard has won Tractor and Machinery magazine's award for the best British tractor book five years running.

The Ferguson Tractor Story

The first book to classify, describe and show the wide range of ploughs produced by Ransomes, Sims &amp; Jefferies is to be reprinted with minor amendments in May 2013. 'A requirement for every Ransomes library' (Old Glory magazine), Ransomes and their Tractor Share Ploughs is aimed squarely at tractor and ploughing enthusiasts. Providing a brief introduction to the company's history, author Tony Clare goes on to give an account of the ploughs which dominated the horse era of farming and were then adapted to be trailed behind tractors and mounted on them. The developments of tractor plough design are covered in detail, as are ploughs for special purposes, market-garden use and export. Also covered are Ford-Ransomes manufacturing as well as the rationalisations of the 1960s and the final links with Dowdeswells. Analyses of plough identification codes, the 'TS' classifications and a glossary complete a comprehensive and very usable book for the many people who value their Ransomes ploughs for matches and at work.

Ransomes and their Tractor Share Ploughs

Clare Dr, Anthony

Early to Rise : A Suffolk Morning

Hugh Barret

Farming Day by Day: The 1960s

Winter, John

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