August19_2010

Botanical Glossary - Home - References Cited

Photos - The entrance of the Grist Mill: A hand made wooden barrel (left), a Buckshot wheel, an early water wheel that was used here in the Grist Mill but was replaced by one that was more efficient (center), and the entrance to the gift shop and office at the Grist Mill.

The first commercially successful Ransome tractor was the MG2, announced in 1936, the first of a series of MG Mini-crawlers which held a small specialized share of the tractor market for thirty (30) years.

Total production of MG tractors amounted to approximately 15,000, or an average of 500 a year, including the War Years when production was temporarily halted and the Postwar period when Ransome made 1,000 tractors a year at the peak of the MG's popularity.

The little tractors were highly unconventional in design. For example, the flywheel incorporated a centrifugal clutch which disengaged when the engine speed fell below 500 RPM. The drive from the clutch is taken through reduction gears to the two crownwheels and differential gearing. One crownwheel produced a forward gear, while the second gave reverse.

With its light weight-1,400 pounds for the MG5, and seventy-four (74) inch length most demand for Ransome Tractors came from nurserymen and market gardeners. The plowing rate for the MG5 was about one acre per eight hour day, which would have been unacceptable on a larger acreage. There were some other markets for the MG's including Tanzania, where they were used to scrape salt from the surface of inland salt pans, and also Holland, where the tractors were popular in some areas because they were small enough to be ferried across drainage dykes in small boats.

Photos - An interesting combination Crawler tractor and plow. The tractor is a 1940s Model MG5 Ransome Garden Tractor, complete with Ransome Trailed Plow Model #TS42A..

Photos - Three views of the old Apple House inside the Grist Mill historic grounds. The Applehouse was built in the early 1900s to store apples and other produce from orchards in the area. The concrete foundation walls are 24" thick and the interior temperature remained at about 11 C or 53 F all year round.

Click here for more photos of Keremeos for this day.