Greensburg, Kansas
International Harvester couldn’t collect debts that most
farmers owed on tractors and machinery, and Ralph Burnett was no
exception. The company offered to cancel the balance of the debt if
Ralph could pay half of it, so he borrowed the money and paid IHC
$200.00. His tractor ended up costing only $800.00.
Two ‘double-headers’ operating on the Burnett farm,
1967.
Ralph couldn’t afford to trade tractors, so he started
making improvements on his. He found out he could boost the
horsepower by installing an overhead exhaust, straight-gasoline
manifold and Zenith K5 carburetor, so this was done in 1934. The
manifold and carburetor were designed for the P-300 power unit. He
also put in a variable-speed P-300 governor, to get better
load-handling from the engine.
In 1935, he hired a local blacksmith to cut the spokes on the
steel wheels and install rubber-tire rims; he was one of thousands
of farmers to do this. On November 1, 1936, International Harvester
company changed the paint scheme on their tractors from the
traditional gray with red wheels to all red, for safety reasons,
because of the poor road visibility of the gray paint. Ralph
Burnett and his neighbors followed suit, and painted their tractors
IH red. This is why so many of these early tractors are painted red
today.
September, 1961-the original Burnett ’22-36′ drilling
wheat south of Mullinville, Kansas.
The old 15-30 continued to be used on the Burnett farm, for
everything from plowing to grinding feed, and might have been
traded off but for one problem: World War II. Ralph’s sons went
to the military, and the tractor manufacturers were busy building
war materials, so the ‘Faithful Old 15-30’ continued to
work the family farm. Ralph once calculated that in the period from
1940-1950, his tractor among all its other chores, bound ten
thousand acres of feed for him and his neighbors.
July, 1970-Kevin Stephenson standing next to 18,000 bushels of
wheat on the ground, Syracuse, Kansas, left.
In 1953, Ralph rented some ground in Hamilton County, Kansas,
from a Greensburg landowner, and started trucking his tractor back
and forth to do the farm work. This got to be a lot of trouble, so
he began looking for another tractor to buy. One of his neighbors
traded in a late 15-30 on a W-9, so Ralph bought it. Some time
thereafter he got the idea to couple two of these tractors
together, into what he called a ‘double-header’. With the
engine modifications made and the two tractors coupled together,
the combined unit developed 130 horsepower. A double-header was
capable of pulling three fifteen-foot oneway plows at a depth of
6-8 inches at 4 MPH. This performance was quite comparable to a
neighbor’s 4020 John Deere.
1972-Ralph Burnett drilling wheat at Syracuse, Kansas, on 1930
’22-36′. Note the name ‘Arnie’ on the tank. This
tractor was originally owned by Arnie Schmidt of Greensburg,
Kansas.
As Ralph’s grandchildren became old enough to help on the
farm, Ralph continued to buy used ’22-36’s’ as they
were traded in, and eventually he owned FIFTEEN of these tractors,
twelve of which were in operating condition. In order to
distinguish one tractor from another, Ralph named each one after
its previous owner, and painted the name on the gas tank. Three
generations of Ralph Burnett’s family farmed with these
machines. The use of these old tractors and the old equipment
didn’t hurt his production any, as evidenced by the harvest
pictures. The 1970 crop averaged 53 bushels per acre dryland.
Ralph Burnett farming at Syracuse, Kansas, 1976
Ralph’s wife Ethel died in 1972, and Kevin Stephenson, the
last grandson, got married in 1973, but he continued to help with
the farm work part-time in the summer. The farm continued to
prosper, and the old tractors continued to run. Just before Ralph
died in 1979, he gave Kevin Stephenson three of the old
’22-36’s’ in exchange for his labor from that summer,
as Ralph had been in the hospital and couldn’t do the work.
The tractor on the cover of this issue is a 1932
McCormick-Deering 15-30 of the increased horsepower, or
’22-36′ design. It was restored by Kevin Stephenson over a
sixteen month period in 1982 and 83. Serial number of this unit is
TG-155156-ME. This tractor was purchased from a neighbor by Ralph
Burnett in 1968 for $35.00. Kevin farmed with this tractor from
1968 to 1979. This particular tractor had a ball-bearing
transmission, as well as the ball bearing mains in the engine for
which McCormick-Deering tractors were famous. This tractor has
appeared at the threshing show at Haviland, Kansas several times,
and the Mullinville Kansas Centennial Celebration on Labor Day
weekend, 1984.
