Many entrepreneurs were involved with developing tractors in the early 20th century.

“My book centers around three companies starting in 1908 and it ends in 1928,” said Neil Dahlstrom, manager of archives and history at John Deere.

He talked about his book, “Tractor Wars: John Deere, Henry Ford, International Harvester, and the Birth of Modern Agriculture,” during a presentation at the Gathering of the Green event that is organized by a group of volunteers representing several John Deere collector clubs.

“International Harvester is the big player and John Deere is trying to figure it out,” he said. “In the early 20th century, International Harvester is the fourth-largest corporation in the U.S.”

In November 1908, Dahlstrom said, Henry Ford sends a photograph and a press release to the editors of Farm Implement News.

“It says that Ford is enthusiastic on the subject of building a farm tractor,” he said. “Building a farm tractor has been Henry Ford’s dream since he was 12 years old.”

There were about six tractor manufacturers in the United States in 1908, Dahlstrom said.

“A lot of entrepreneurs were trying to get into the business. So, by 1912, 31 manufacturers were building tractors, and in 1916, 114 manufacturers are making 29,670 tractors.”

In 1913 to 1914, the Bull Tractor Company introduces the Bull tractor.

“This changes everything because for the first time a tractor was built for the average-size farm,” the author said.

The Bull company went from nonexistent to market leader in one year, Dahlstrom said.

“But five years later, they were bankrupt, so building tractors is incredibly difficult,” he said.

Also in 1913, the National Tractor Demonstration event started.

“If you attended one of these events, you see tractors from 100-plus manufacturers,” Dahlstrom said. “There would be train cars full of tractors and they would start in the southern United States and work north to eventually end in Wisconsin.”

In 1916, Henry Ford attends the National Tractor Demonstration for the first time in Fremont in eastern Nebraska.

“He brings a 20-piece orchestra for entertainment, some chefs and he hires two young ladies from a local college to operate his tractors, because tractors are so easy to operate, even a woman can do it,” Dahlstrom said.

“Wednesday is Henry Ford Day at the demonstration and the paper said 50,000 people came,” the John Deere manager said.

“In 1918, Ford hits the U.S. market and sells 30,000 tractors the first year, and by the mid-1920s, he is selling 100,000 tractors per year,” he said. “He is building half of the industry production.”

In March 1918, John Deere purchases the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company, which was producing the Waterloo Boy tractor.

“One of the selling features for John Deere, besides the two-cylinder engine, was that the Waterloo Boy ran on kerosene,” Dahlstrom said. “John Deere had a major concern that gasoline prices were going to spike when the war ended and that input cost would keep people from buying tractors.”

At the beginning of the price wars in 1921, the author said, Deere sold 79 tractors.

“Sales were so anemic that the John Deere board of directors took a vote to decide if they would sell the Waterloo tractor line,” he said.

“Fortunately, they decided to stick it out and stay in the tractor business,” Dahlstrom noted. “But it was eight years before they generated a profit.”

“Alexander Legge’s mission in life as the CEO of International Harvester was to destroy Henry Ford,” he said. “When Ford cut the price of a Fordson tractor from $750 to $395, Legge says we are going to match them on price and this is what starts the price war.”

Companies continued to develop new machines including the McCormick-Deering 10-20 and 15-30.

“John Deere is developing the next generation of Waterloo Boy, which essentially becomes the Model D,” Dahlstrom said. “And then the Farmall changes everything.”

Only eight companies are left that are considered full-line manufacturers in 1929, the John Deere manager said.

“From 1928 to 1929, there are a lot of mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies that really reform the tractor industry,” he said.

“In 1920, more people lived in the city than on the farm for the first time in American history,” Dahlstrom said. “So, you start to see the beginning of the trend of shrinking number of farms and the farm population.”

“This starts the birth of modern agriculture where it becomes the business of raising food,” he said. “Because you are raising food for more than just your family, you are raising surplus so you can take it to the market to sell it and in my mind the farm tractor really leads that.”