The little gray oneIf you say that in farming circles, everyone knows what you're talking about. Namely Ferguson – a little powerhouse of a tractor that revolutionized agriculture 70 years ago.
After World War II, the Marshall Plan came from the United States. An economic aid scheme that was supposed to help the war-torn countries in Europe recover after the war. Danish agriculture now recovered relatively quickly, but it was no longer profitable to run traditional agriculture, so mechanization in agriculture was on the horizon. A significant contribution came in the form of this type of tractor – produced in England and sent to Denmark – and it heralded new times for Danish agriculture. More than 50,000 of them were sold in Denmark until 1960, so it was very popular.
The Ferguson system included a wide range of implements that could be attached to the tractor, so if the old implements could not be converted, new ones could be purchased. In addition, it had a three-point linkage so that the implements could be lifted off the ground without leaving the tractor, and a large spring that ensured that the tractor did not tilt so easily if you drove over large stones in the field.
In the 1950s, more than half of the Danish population still lived in the countryside, where they were employed in agriculture or trade, crafts and service professions related to agriculture. But at the same time as the number of tractors increased sharply, more and more people moved from the countryside to the larger cities.
But which came first – the chicken or the egg? Was it mechanization that led to a depopulation of agriculture, because the tractor replaced people and draft animals, which in turn meant far fewer jobs in the countryside, which forced more people to seek employment in urban industries. Or was mechanization in agriculture, conversely, a necessity, because more and more people sought employment in urban industries, where wages and working conditions were better than in agriculture?
Regardless of which explanation you lean towards, mechanization in Danish agriculture had begun, and from then on it only went one way. More machines, bigger farms, and fewer people. And the Ferguson tractor was there from the start.
Overview
Grade level: intermediate level
Subject: History
Content/Tags: Agriculture, tractors, Marshall Aid, mechanization, intermediate, history
Today's idea suggestion: Imagine you were a child in the countryside when the first tractor came to the farm. What happened? What did it look like? Was it a good thing? Write or draw your story.
