In America, the Massey Ferguson 97 is often referred to as a ‘muscle tractor’, a ‘wheat-land’ tractor, and a ‘prairie tractor’ because at 108hp it was a big tractor for the period, and it was clearly built for pulling heavy machinery on vast stretches of arable farmland.
Giants
In the UK, the first tractors were small machines, and have gradually increased in size over the last century, but in the US, this was not the case. There, early tractors were enormous, then they became small, and then they became large again.
The vast untamed prairies were first cultivated using massive tractors, now known as the ‘prairie giants’. These tractors were colossal even by today’s standards and were expensive tools, owned mostly by the larger, wealthier farmers and agricultural contractors. During this time, in the pre-Twenties, the small-time farmers were still using horses, for these giant tractors would have been far too costly and cumbersome for the modest-sized farmer to even dream of owning. For instance, the Twin City 60/90, which was built in 1913 originally as the 60/110, was a 90hp tractor. It was around 22ft long, almost 10ft
