Framed or unframed, desk size to sofa size, printed by us in Arizona and Alabama since 2007. Explore now.
Shorpy is funded by you. Patreon contributors get an ad-free experience.
Learn more.
Shorpy members who are Patreon contributors get an ad-free experience! (Mostly -- there's still an ad above the comments.) Sign up or learn more.
July 1936. "John Frederick of Grant County, North Dakota, shows how high his wheat would grow if there were no drought." Medium-format nitrate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.
At least this farmer had a tractor. At that time, my grandfather was farming in South Dakota using horse-drawn machinery. He didn't get his first tractor till 1940 or so.
This one brings back memories, not of the 1930s, but of the 5-year drought we had in Kansas when I was a boy (1952-57). I wish I could see more of the tractor and the combine. The tractor may be a John Deere D two-cylinder. My father operated a Case Model P combine in the late 1930s. His dad drove the tractor and my father stood on a platform turning a wheel (which looked like a ship's wheel) to raise and lower the header. He said it was miserable work--breathing chaff and dust all day.
had grey skin, a little mouth and great big eyes, landed their saucer right over yonder where that big circle is burned into the crop!
On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5