Agricultural Tractors - France: Books - History (1/3)

La nouvelle encyclopedie des tracteurs fabriqués en France

A first Encyclopedia of tractors manufactured in France, from the origins to the present day, published in 1998, inventoried more than 200 brands of tractors from advertising documents and extracts from specialized magazines. This long compilation work was the first of its kind on the subject and was a great success.

For about fifteen years, the incredible craze for old agricultural machinery has allowed us to discover many little-known artisanal brands, which have never published an advertisement, thanks to collectors who preserve this rich heritage throughout France.

This new edition, in color, brings more than fifty new brands and many unpublished photos. From the end of the 19th century to the present day, the ingenuity of designers has given birth to machines adapted to the needs of a constantly developing agriculture.

Alongside major French brands such as Renault, Société française, Someca or Vendeuvre, foreign manufacturers have set up in France to produce their equipment: Austin, Massey-Harris, International Harvester, Minneapolis-Moline, Case, Ferguson or Massey-Ferguson. Many smaller brands have also left their mark on this history: Patissier Énergic, MAP, Sabatier Le Pratique, Sift, Champion, Labourier, Saint-Chamond, Latil, Babiole, Eco, Maci.
And countless craftsmen embarked on the construction of more or less realistic machines to meet demand, especially in the years following the war. Most of them had only a short existence and sometimes produced only a few machines before disappearing or being absorbed by industrial groups. Find them all in this new book.

Information

Author:	Christian Descombes
Details:	336 pages, 31 x 23.5 cm / 12.2 x 9.25 in, hardback
Illustrations:	numerous b&w and colour photos
Publisher:	ETAI (F, 2012)
ISBN:	9782726895962

Tracteurs oubliés de nos campagnes 1919-1924

This second volume deals with French tractors and machines of all kinds that followed one another after 1918. In the aftermath of the Great War, in 1919, there was an explosion of models. Manufacturers had indeed gone very far in innovations, sometimes incredible...

The last chapter, devoted to "prototypes, small series and ephemeral tractors" is a perfect illustration of this! Competition between manufacturers was fierce, each had to find its specialty to survive...
Car manufacturers started manufacturing agricultural tractors: Renault, Peugeot, Citroën, Delahaye, De-Dion, D.F.P., Fiat, Austin...

Everyone will find what they are looking for in this reference book, progressing through the pages in the discovery of new models and the men who designed and built these tractors. The evolution of agricultural machinery is underway, the models follow one another.
Illustrated with more than 600 old documents, this work restores the history and atmosphere of the time.
The authors are all three farmers from Seine-et-Marne, motivated by the same passion. They collect old tractors of all kinds, old plows, brochures, etc.

Information

Author:	Bernard Gibert, Marc Solvet, Philippe Abit
Details:	288 pages, 31 x 23.5 cm / 12.2 x 9.25 in, hardback
Illustrations:	350 b&w and colour photos
Publisher:	ETAI (F, 2010)
ISBN:	9782726894729

Tracteurs

How can we think of the contemporary agricultural world without imagining a tractor, often brightly colored, boldly crossing a freshly plowed field... An evocation closely linked to our landscapes. Without a doubt, the tractor revolutionized the French rural world at the dawn of the 1950s, pushing the draft horse that then took on the work of the land towards the stable: it was the advent of the power of the mechanical horse.

This arrival quickly turned into a revolution: fewer arms, more worked surfaces, a race for increasing productivity. Initially small in size, imported from across the Atlantic, the machines gained in size and power, spearheading galloping mechanization; our industry then produced them in large numbers.

Those familiar with the rural world see again the Farmall from Mc Cormick-Deering, the "little grey" from Ferguson, the valiant Pony from Massey-Harris and the Renault D22 at work in the French countryside...
At the end of the 1970s, 95% of French farms were equipped with at least one tractor, marking a trend that is still strong today.

Information

Author:	Francis Dréer
Details:	285 pages, 29.5 x 24.5 x 2 cm / 11.6 x 9.7 x 0.79 in, paperback
Illustrations:	numerous b&w and colour photos
Publisher:	Terres Editions (F, 2019)
ISBN:	9782355302909

Tracteurs oubliés de nos campagnes 1896-1918

Relive the history of these old tractors that were first powered by petroleum products and not steam.
Before 1914, these tractors were often called "petrol-powered automobile tractors". First, there were all the derivatives of the various earth-digging machines: the rotary plough, the pickaxe, the motor-plough, the self-propelled plough, the cultivator, etc. Then came other machines powered by cables: the winch tractor, the tractor-tow. Then came the automobile plough, the motor-plough, the automobile hoe, etc. And then the crumbler, the polycultor as well as the tracked tractor, the articulated tractor and the vineyard tractor.

At that time, tractors had as many different shapes and sizes as possible, many were mounted on three wheels. Some tractors looked like real monsters, others were very small. The main bases of mechanics were discovered at the beginning of the 20th century. The First World War having devastated the soils, the re-cultivation of abandoned lands or those located on the sites of combat favored the development of exploitation equipment.

Through a magnificent collection of more than 550 unpublished period photos, discover for the first time these fantastic machines and tractors mounted on iron wheels. Also discover the work of men, the main players in the development of machinery, who are not forgotten in this book either.

Information

Author:	Bernard Gibert, Marc Solvet, Philippe Abit
Details:	288 pages, 31 x 23.5 cm / 12.2 x 9.25 in, hardback
Illustrations:	560 b&w and colour photos
Publisher:	ETAI (F, 2008)
ISBN:	9782726888032

Les ancêtres de nos tracteurs 1900-1935

An unpublished work! It presents, from very rare documents, 100 brands and 200 models built and sold from 1900 to 1935. Forgotten and incredible machines!
Very few collectors have these period brochures. They bring back to life a period of major technological evolution that profoundly changed the lives of farmers.

Information

Author:	Bernard Gibert
Details:	383 pages, 30.5 x 21.5 x 3 cm / 12 x 8.5 x 1.18 in, hardback
Illustrations:	profusely illustrated
Publisher:	Editions France Agricole (F, 2016)
ISBN:	9791090213562

L'aube du tracteur en France - catalogue complet de tous les tracteurs agricoles (1917)

In 1917, while the Great War was still devastating our countryside and France was still a country whose rural population used only human labor and animal traction, an extraordinary work appeared: the complete catalog of all agricultural tractors and automotive equipment allowing motorized cultivation: it was a vision of the future made accessible to all.
No fewer than 177 different machines were thus offered to farmers, who, once peace returned, would have to imagine their traditional activity differently.

Today, more than a century after its publication, this work of synthesis has lost none of its documentary interest and has taken on a historical value of its own. The enthusiast of agricultural machinery will discover the incredible diversity of tractors and agricultural machines already available at the time.

The majority of these are machines from across the Atlantic, with famous names (Case, International Harvester, Caterpillar, etc.) or lesser-known ones; British models are also present (Fowler, Aveling & Porter, etc.), while a few names from continental Europe stand out, such as our national Vierzon and the Lanz "across the way". This is truly the Dawn of the tractor in France. Where it all started.

Information

Author:	C. Chauveau
Details:	272 pages, 23 x 15 cm / 9.1 x 5.9 in, hardback
Illustrations:	185 b&w photos
Publisher:	Histoire & Collections (F, 2007)
ISBN:	9782352500605

Attelées

How to promote the magnificent French horse-drawn heritage, witness to the needs, tastes and know-how of an era? By revealing its wealth and past prestige!
This beautiful, highly illustrated book is a rich inventory of around thirty families of vehicles and their teams, chosen to be typical of a region and an activity. A real dive into the hard-working France of yesteryear!

Part of the book is devoted to rural vehicles and teams: farm carts, wine carts, farm dumpers, trolleys, triqueballes, hand trucks, logging trucks, flour trucks, livestock trucks, planters, traveling sales cars.

A second part focuses on urban vehicles and teams: trucks, sales cars, removal cars, haquets, brewers', lemonade and wine merchants' cars, ice boxes, milkmen's cars, market gardeners' cars, coal miners' cars, plasterers' cars, construction site vehicles (tar spreaders, rollers, paving and sand dumpers, stone dumpers, etc.), road maintenance and public hygiene (torpedo boats, sweepers, road workers' dumpers, rubbish and bulky waste removal, emptying cars), exceptional convoys.

Information

Author:	Etienne Petitclerc
Details:	341 pages, 30 x 21.5 x 2.5 cm / 11.8 x 8.5 x 0.98 in, paperback
Illustrations:	numerous b&w and colour photos
Publisher:	Editions France Agricole (F, 2016)
ISBN:	9791090213548