History
1882 Harrison Machine Works steam-powered tractor
The first powered farm implements in the early 19th century were
– steam engines on wheels that could be used to drive mechanical farm
machinery by way of a flexible belt. Around 1850, the first were developed from these, and were widely adopted for agricultural use. The first tractors were steam-powered .
They were used in pairs, placed on either side of a field to haul a
plow back and forth between them using a wire cable. Where soil
conditions permitted (as in the United States),
were used to direct-haul plows, but in the UK and elsewhere, plowing
engines were used for cable-hauled plowing, instead. Steam-powered remained in use well into the 20th century until reliable internal combustion engines had been developed.
