A Short History of the A.B. Farquhar Company
(Page 2 of 2)
March/April 2002
Jack C. Norbeck
Among the leading implements manufactured there were the Pennsylvania drill and corn planter, with perfect force-feed and phosphate attachment, the Farquhar celebrated wheel or sulky plow, power hay presses and the Farquhar improved cotton planter.
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The Farquhar improved cotton planter was very simple in operation, dropping the unrolled seed with remarkable regularity and in any desired amount.
The Keystone corn planter would plant from 10 to 12 acres of corn per day, dropping kernels in drills or in hills at any desired distance apart, and sowing at the same time — it used any kind of pulverized fertilizer.
The Pennsylvania force-feed fertilizer grain drill would not only sow the grain evenly, but equally important, it would also distribute phosphate fertilizer with the same precision, doing the work without any loss of either seed or fertilizer.
Global reach
A.B. Farquhar sold his agricultural implements all around the globe, and demand for Farquhar’s products increased yearly. In every state and territory of the U.S., and from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and Europe, customers sought out the company’s products. Customers called from South America, France, Germany, Russia, China, Japan and Africa, and there was constant demand for implements and machinery from the Pennsylvania Agricultural Works.
It may truly be said that A.B. Farquhar’s name spread to every civilized nation in the world. Farquhar was also known throughout the U.S. and abroad as a student of and authority on questions of political economy, with special reference to finance and tariff legislation.
Farquhar machinery had been awarded premiums at all the leading expositions, including the Centennial at Philadelphia, the Paris Exposition, the New Orleans Cotton Exposition, the World’s Columbian Exposition, the Pan-American at Buffalo and the World’s Fair at St. Louis. In 1952 the Oliver Corp. acquired the A.B. Farquhar Company Ltd. of York, Pa. IMA
Read about a 1924 Farquhar independent-mounted 15-45 engine: “1924 Farquhar Model K.” Information for this article came from A.B. Farquhar’s 1921 autobiography, The First Million is the Hardest, and from The Encyclopedia of American Steam Traction Engines, by Jack C. Norbeck. Special thanks to Lemar Mathew, senior director of Museum Service at the Industrial and Agricultural Museum, York, Pa., and Pete Adomis, who carries out restorations for the museum. Iron-Men Album editor Richard Backus contributed to this story.
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