Collectors of New Holland stationary gas engines will be
interested to learn that a book has been published about the
company that made these sturdy, hard-working staples in farm
equipment.
How many of these engines might be around today, we don’t
know. But they are most certainly collectors’ items and are
shown with pride by many of the buffs who own them.
The book is titled The Innovators. It is written by Homer K.
Luttringer, who was Vice President for Worldwide Marketing and
Communications when he retired in 1980. Luttringer lives in
Lancaster, Pa., from which he commuted to the office in nearby New
Holland.
George C. Delp, of Lancaster, is one of the group of men who
bought the struggling New Holland Machine Company and built it to
reach the top of the worldwide farm equipment industry. Delp, who
became president of the giant corporation, continues his interest
through the book.
The company was founded in 1895 as the New Holland Machine Works
by Abram Zimmerman. The men who bought it in 1940 had formerly been
employees of the former Dellinger Manufacturing Company. Delp, the
late Raymond D. Buckwalter and the late Iral A. Daffin were in on
the start, with advice from the Rev. J. Henry Fisher.
The world’s first automatic pick-up hay baler, invented by
Edwin B. Nolt, a Lancaster Countian, held the key to the first
major surge in business. The company started making this baler just
as the gray clouds of World War II covered the nation.
Sperry Corporation bought New Holland in 1947 but management was
kept in the hands of Delp and his associates. Daffin resigned to
develop his own businesses. Later J. Paul Lyet became president and
eventually was elected to head the Sperry Corporation, a post he
held until his retirement in 1982.
Sperry sold New Holland to Ford in 1986 and it became part of
Ford New Holland, then the third largest farm equipment company in
the world. Since then, Ford New Holland was acquired by Italy’s
Fiat Group.
New Holland equipment owners may not know all the inner workings
of the corporation, but they certainly know and rely on the
equipment.
Among the oldest surviving products of the firm’s early days
are the gas engines, which Luttringer comments were ‘available
in several horsepower sizes and always in demand from Mennonite and
Amish farmers who depended on horses and mules for power.’
The author further comments:
‘Fifty years later some of these engines were still working
on Lancaster County farms, but most of those which could be found
in earlier years were purchased quickly and sold as collector items
for as much as several thousand dollars each-a far cry from the
original price of$25 to $50.’
Not shown in the book, but a genuinely nostalgic illustration
nevertheless, is a drawing made to advertise products of the old
Hertzler & Zook Company, of Belleville, Pa., which became part
of New Holland in 1942.
It is reproduced here from a New Holland publication, and gives
some idea or the tar seeing view of manufacturers of that distant
day.
How to Reduce Labor and Make Farm Life a Pleasure
New Holland’s leading products and their prices, as of March
1990, are listed in the book, along with color illustrations. Here
they are:
Small square balers, $9,200 to $37,600; large square balers,
$45,800 to $57,600; round balers, $11,200 to $18,900; mowers,
$1,860 to $5,800; mower-conditioners, $9,170 to $31,500; rakes,
$2,900 to $14,400; windrowers, $36,400; headers for windrowers,
$7,900 to $11,800; automatic bale wagons, $14,300 to $84,500;
forage harvesters, $9,400 to $146,000; forage boxes, $6,300 to
$7,000; combines, $80,500 to $117,000; combine heads, $3,100 to
$23,500; grinder-mixers, $7,600 to $17,600; manure spreaders,
$3,300 to $11,500; skid-steer loaders, $8,350 to $25,670.
Last we heard, orders were coming in strongly for the book. If
you wish to order a copy, send $40.28 to Philip Buzard, Agent, 1565
Mission Road, Lancaster, Pa. 17601.
(If you want to swap stories or learn more about New Holland
engines, contact A. D. Mast, who was long with the firm, and can be
seen frequently at the Rough & Tumble Museum, Kinzers, Pa., or
by appointment; address 46 Dan-bury Road, Lancaster, Pa.
17601.)
