Farmall 656 High Clear

Harold H

In the 60's I sold three new Farmall 504 High Clear tractors to a farmer who was also a engineer and built some of his own equipment. He built three bean pickers of his own design simular to the Chism Reider (I believe that is the right brand name, they were a greeny/yellow color) commercial bean pickers. When the Farmall 656 hydrostatic came out he bought the three Farmall 656 HC Hydros and modified his bean pickers to fit on the 656 and traded the Farmall 504 High Clears in on them. We sold the 504's locally as spray machine tractors, (as a number of the older cotton picker tractors had been used). When he quit the eatable bean business he sold the three bean pickers on the F656HC's out of the area. If any of those pickers you know of are unbranded, painted red, and the tractor part has three point hitch, they could be the three built in Mississippi. Also, his pickers were all hydraulic drive whereas the factory built pickers use mechanical drive. The tractors used by Chism Reider also did not have three point hitch or rockshaft. There is a derilict F666HC from a old Chism Reider bean picker in a salvage yard in Chattanooga.

Harold H

Harold H

I was in the area just two years ago and the current machines this company were using were hi-clear Farmalls with 06 and 56 style grills. I could tell they were not the heavier chassis of 706, 756, 806, etc. Again I was not up close, so whether the tractors were diesel, hydros, 504, 656 or 544, I am not sure. 504 was never produced as a hydro, right?

The fellow I know and may take a bit to catch up with was the field operations manager with that company. He will know the answer. If it were March here in Canada I would know how to find him quickly. July will not be quick.

Another place a lot of Hydros (not hi clear) went here in Canada was PEI potato industry. They built locally a self propelled potato harvester, two sizes powered by either a hydro 70 or 100. Wheels and front end was removed from tractor and it was placed on top of harvester, with heavy chain drives to harvester wheels from tractor axles. The hydrostatic power steering was tapped into front end of harvester. The operator sat 8 to 10 feet above the ground on tractor's platform. It put their driving wheels behind the harvesting unit thus allowing them to use larger tires for flotation and traction.

I've never seen one of the potato harvesters. That sounds interesting. I wonder why they had to be so tall? I would have thought a potato harvester was low to the ground. Back to the eatable bean pickers, the only production Chism Reider machines I ever saw were on F504HC's and the only ones I ever saw on the F656 HC Hydros were the ones built locally. I know later CR ones were built on F666HC Hydros because that is what the junk one in Chattanooga is. The Mississippi Delta had always been primarly cotton, rice, corn and soybeans. However in the early sixties some decided the area was right to grow food and vegetables. A large cannery was built in Morehead, several companies set up experimental farms for vegetable test growing, and a number of producers started growing food crops, mainly eatable beans, tomatoes, and peanuts. It never did really catch on and less than ten years after production started there were no more food crops (other than rice and corn which have always been grown) being grown in the Delta. The cannery is still in business but most of the vegetables are imported from Arkansas or further away. The main food crops in the Delta are now catfish and rice. I beleave the Mississippi Delta produces more farm raised catfish than all the rest of the United States together.

Harold H

Around this area (north Georgia) there are a couple of blueberry farms but they are strictly small hand pick operations. I did not even know there was a machine to pick blueberrys. Always interested to see what is used in other parts of the world.

Harold H