Question about " Big M "

[brin]

When I was a kid spending summers in the Mississippi delta on my Uncles huge farm in the 1950's every morning dozens of tractors would start up and the operators would drive them down the road in front of the house on their way to the fields and my cousin would say " There go the Big M's " So do any of you know would he had been referring to them as big M's because they were Masseys or Minneapolis Molines or some other brand...I have always wondered . Thanks

 

[flusher]

When I was a kid spending summers in the Mississippi delta on my Uncles huge farm in the 1950's every morning dozens of tractors would start up and the operators would drive them down the road in front of the house on their way to the fields and my cousin would say " There go the Big M's " So do any of you know would he had been referring to them as big M's because they were Masseys or Minneapolis Molines or some other brand...I have always wondered . Thanks

If those tractors were painted Prairie Gold, they were Minneapolis Molines.
Massey's generally were painted red.

There is a MM Big Mo 400 from that era

Minneapolis Moline Big Mo 400 Tractor 2007 Jackson County Fair pictures from hobbies & interests photos on webshots

I really like those MMs. I'm restoring a 1951 MM model BF (25 hp engine)--a labor of love.

 

[Egon]

International M ?

 

[brin]

Now keeping in mind I was about 10 or 11 yrs. old at the time...as I recall these were big, again in my 10 yr. old eyes, red tractors that would go by one by one and that's all I remember - funny how that sticks with me and I have always wondered what make they were but they were called " Big M's " at least by my cousin who was also 10 or 11 yrs. old. I learned to drive a tractor then...either a 8N or 9N and one summer one of my friends went to his grandads farm and died when a tractor flipped backwards on him...probably let the clutch out to fast and probably a 8 or 9 N..they are bad about that.

 

[kebo]

McCormicks were red too..... Could that have been it?

 

[jenkinsph]

I would suspect that to have been an M farmall 50 hp tractor with 38" wheels. One of my neighbors down the road has one he uses often. While I am not a fan of International I recognize that these were good workhorse tractors and fairly popular too. Lots of them were still around when I lived in Pike county many years later.

 

[ChuckinNH]

My uncle was a big fan of the Farmall M, and Super M which may have been what you were seeing. My last memory of my uncle alive was watching him work a piece of river bottom with his favorite Super M, and a chisel plow. That was just two years ago, and it was an original tractor......... no restoration job there!

 

[brin]

Thanks guys ..sounds to me from what you are posting what I was seeing were Farmall M's and they must have called the " Big M's " - There sure were a lot of them leaving to work every morning ...My uncle farmed over 1,000 acres in the Miss. delta back then. I can still see in my mind all of the row houses the workers and their famalies lived in along the roads on the part of the farm down the road from the main house...those were good times I will never forget. We use to run a trot line across the river that flowed though his farm and we used to shoot the Gar..(sp?) big fish that would break the surface...Thanks for the info !

 

[welder1]

Around here, if you had a M and a super C you were a bigtime farmer. My whole county was "Red" because all we had was one tractor dealer and he sold Internationals. Most are still working and there's not many farms in my county that don't have a Red tractor occupying a barn or field. My Grandpa had an old F-30 Farmall and if I close my eyes I can still here that thing groanin' pullin a set of cut-aways. I'd love to have that tractor back!

 

[Thomas]

By the sounds visit needed to old country/village store ask town fathers,or news clipping.

Remembering..know what you mean Bob,last week I couldn't recall the name of hay rake to young whipper snapper college student,day or so later had small screw driver in back pocket sat on it..OUCH..than the hay rake name was clear...dump rake,spent many hours setting on those old iron seats...OUCH.