7 Welcome
Tempus fugit – but 2008 looks like being a brilliant year for Tractor magazine.
8 Headline news
10 Honey I shrunk the tractor!
Things aren’t always bigger in the USA – and International’s smallest farm tractor was even more diminutive than most on this side of the pond, writes Pete Henshaw.
14 Farming with Leyland blue
On the Kent-Sussex border, Peter Love visits Kevin Ashby, who keeps a small fleet of British Leyland tractors at work.
18 A tractor for all seasons
The Massey-Ferguson 135 makes the perfect starter tractor, and Joe Bell has two beautifully-restored examples, one with a rare period glass-fibre cab. David Bowers tells the story of this Cumbrian perfectionist, with some stunning photos.
23 News
34 Going, going...
Once a common sight on the Lincolnshire fens, traditional crawler tractors are becoming increasingly scarce as the rubber-tracked revolution takes hold. However Jerry Thurston comes across a nice Caterpillar D4D still working hard in Bedfordshire.
38 That Christmas spirit!
Tractor reports on a handful of Christmas road runs, and there will be a further round up next month.
42 Sales & Marketplace news
48 Done and dusted
Ben Phillips completes the transformation of a friend’s Massey- Ferguson 135.
52 Buzzard blitzkrieg!
Jo Roberts looks back on a year of sodden harvests, new arrivals and a brief encounter around her North Wales home.
56 Model World
62 Ploughman’s progress
Champion Scottish ploughman Bobby Douglas tells of a lifetime’s experience in farming and vintage match ploughing.
66 Off to the country!
For children living in London’s East End slums in Victorian England, the idea of spending a day in the country was as remote as a trip to the moon. Jane Brooks tells how a charity movement changed all that.
72 Super Major engine repair
Dave Harris takes us step-by-step through an engine rebuild on a tired and weary Fordson Super Major.
77 Graham Hampstead
Our Lincolnshire smallholder and roving tractor mechanic brings another instalment of life on the fens, and a crawler tractor proves a real problem.
80 What’s your tractor worth?
Our 10-page Tractor Price Guide brings the latest values for vintage and classic tractors in five different condition categories.
90 Flying start for the New Trusty Steed
With some rare archive photographs, Geoff Ravenhall tells the story of the improved ride-on horticultural tractors that emerged from Tractors (London) Ltd in March 1950.
92 Gold-standard FE35
Peter Love takes a detailed look at Maurice Houghton’s brilliant restoration of a 1957 Ferguson FE35 that he rescued as a skid unit
at the heart of a Standen beet harvester that was later modified into a sprayer.
98 A hoof in both camps
Polly Pullar learns about the joys and challenges of keeping a much-loved rare cattle breed as she visits Peter Close’s Longhorn herd at Berwick-upon-Tweed.
102 King horsepower!
Pete Henshaw goes to Cornwall to track down an example of the world’s first 100hp production two-wheel drive tractor, the Allis-Chalmers D21.
108 Earthmaster discovered!
It’s rare in the USA, let alone Europe… so what exactly is an Earthmaster tractor? Peter Love comes across the remains of one in the UK that might be coming up for sale this year.
111 Chinese crackers
With the Rabtrak team of Richard and Ivana Birkett settled in their new Lincolnshire headquarters, we’re likely to see a lot more of the sturdily-built range of Chinese YTO tractors.
114 Rebuilding a Standard Fordson
Harry Dodd makes progress on his neighbour’s venerable ‘N’.
116 Reviews
118 Diary dates
119 Tractor Marketplace
The place to buy tractors and everything associated with them.
130 Rare Breeds Factfile
This month Marianne Thomas tells the history of Irish Moiled cattle and explains their present status.
