CNKS: I believe someone has posted saying the one millionth tractor a Farmall M was built in 1947. Now a quick glance at the history of IH, and I really don't have much difficulty with that figure, just considering tractors used in commercial agriculture. I do however have a great deal of difficulty with 5 million by 1974. At this point and time, I do not intend to buy any book, written by anyone. I allready have a substancial collection of farm equipment books (about old iron) that have a few too many mistakes for me to spend my money on more. If I look at serial number figures for 1957 in YT's serial number page the numbers are Cub lo-boy-1,653, Cub-6,158, 130-7,243, 230-6,012. F350-13,171, F450-20,137, 350U-13,086, W450-1,093, and 650-10,971 for a total of 79,524. If you do the same thing for 1968; Cub lo-boy-278, Cub-2,976, 140-2,554, 544-4,737, 656-6,727, 756-5,677, 856-10,812, 1256-5,032 and 4156-8,718 for a total of 57,511 I realize these figures are just North American production and that at the same time production was occuring in Great Britain, Germany and Austrailia. I do know a bit about agri business and production around the world. I have followed that one a lot more closely over the years than machinery production figures. So if we believe the 5 millionth IH tractor by 1974, that is 4 million IH tractors in 27 years, I cant see it. 2.7 to 3 million tractors used in commercial agricultural production built by IH is all I can see.
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