Henry Ford grew up in an extended family of farmers in Wayne County a few miles from Detroit, Michigan in the late 19th century.

As his interest in automobiles grew, he also expressed a desire to "lift the burden of farming from flesh and blood and place it on steel and motors.

In the early 1910s, North America and Europe were hungry for small, inexpensive tractors, and many people seized on the Model T as a platform with which to create them.

American engineer, inventor, and businessman Henry Ford built experimental tractors from automobile components during the early 20th century and launched a prototype known as the Model B in August 1915.

With World War I raging in Europe, the first regular-production Henry Ford & Son tractors were exported to the U.K. in 1917 to expand British agriculture.

[5] It used a 16 hp (12 kW), two-cylinder, horizontally opposed engine, a spur gear transmission and three wheels—two front drivers and one rear steerer.

The mixture coming from the carburetor was intentionally rich, and the vaporizer heated it and mixed it with more air to lean it out to the final ratio before entering the inlet manifold.

But it was the first tractor that combined all of the following factors: it was small, lightweight, mass-produced, and affordable;[21] it had a large distribution network (dealers nearby in many locales); and it had a widely trusted brand (via Ford).

[24] Soon Dearborn was sending knock-down kits to final assembly plants in various U.S. states, including New Jersey, Iowa, and Missouri.

[25] Despite several early design flaws and reliability issues such as engine failure and unbearable heat, the Fordson established a firm foothold on U.S. farms, with more than 70% market share in earlier years.

Under this arrangement, forty-two tractors were loaned to such universities as Cornell, Idaho, Michigan, Maryland and Prairie View State Normal in Texas.

[26] These problems included practical limits to traction, especially under muddy, snowy, or icy conditions, and the habit of rearing over backward if the plow encountered an obstruction.

The Fordson used the Model T coil magneto system; and water and oil pumps were eliminated in favor of the simpler thermosiphon cooling and splash lubrication.

This condition was caused by the low-geared worm drive, lightweight, and short length so there was an insufficient downward load to counter the reaction torque.

[28] However, the problem already existed, but was made worse by the higher differential position, which was accompanied by larger rear wheels, which required more torque to give the same drawbar force.

[30] As also happened with Ford cars and trucks imported in the early 1920s, the Soviets immediately began their domestic production of replacement parts and clones.

One was that IHC's Farmall and other competitors had taken away the mystique of the Fordson in the U.S., and Henry Ford was not content to compete in the U.S. tractor market on a mere commodity basis; he wanted decisive competitive edges.

Another is that he envisioned moving all production to Ireland and England because Europe, including Russia, was set to become the most important Fordson market.

This disrupted the business of countless firms, including Ford dealerships[36] and aftermarket equipment makers (which was a large industry both for the Model T and the Fordson).

Given Ford's shutdown of U.S. Fordson production, the next big Soviet orders of American tractors via the Amtorg Trading Corporation went to IHC and others.

The Model N featured a 27 HP engine, standard rear fenders (mudguards), a higher voltage ignition system, and optional pneumatic tires.

[42] By the late 1930s, Henry Ford's enthusiasm for reentering the tractor market was growing, but he still did not have a design or features that could ensure a runaway, market-changing success.

From 1948 onwards the Perkins P6(TA) could be ordered fitted from the factory, giving the tractor a 45 hp (34 kW) power unit, and improving on the design that was let down by the under-powered petrol/TVO engine.

Meanwhile, a smaller new three-cylinder version which was named the Dexta had been launched to compete with the success of the Massey Ferguson 35, of which it shared the basic gearbox and differential casings as well as many other parts.

Like Model T cars and trucks, the Fordson tractor provided the basis for a large and varied aftermarket in accessories and conversions.

A pair of articles[44][45] in a 1922 issue of the Chilton Tractor Journal describes the business environment[44] and gives photographs of many of the attachments and conversions available.

It was reminiscent of earlier mechanized efforts such as the Detroit Tractor, Moline Universal, and Allis-Chalmers Model 6-12 in that it represented the most literal kind of horse replacement (in some suppliers' cases, even retaining the reins as the control method).

But besides providing mere comfort and familiarity for farmers accustomed to working with horses, it also neutralized an economic disadvantage of the tractors of the era.

Setups such as these cut back the man-hour requirement to match that of the horse—while the tractor's high power and lack of daily, year-round feeding ("eats only when it works") continued to beat the horse economically otherwise.

[48] To displace both horses and steam from remote logging railways (bush trams), several enterprising inventors took the Fordson tractor and made modifications to allow them to run on rails.