Thumbing through the pages of old Tensas Gazettes this past week, I ran across an article from February 1908.
It was a mention of some photographs published in The Illustrated Sunday Magazine. This was an addition to the Sunday Times-Picayune newspaper from New Orleans. It referenced several photographs, or what it called “likenesses of various views in Tensas Parish.” Unfortunately, none of those “likenesses” were reprinted in the Tensas Gazette.
This placed me on the search to find them. And luckily, they were found in an online archive. The scanned images were very dark, as many old newspapers scanned images were. I was able to save copies of the images and scan them into a photo editor which brought them into a viewable condition.
One of the most impressive images was of the first steam traction plow in Tensas Parish. In the images, Mr. James P. Harrison of Delta Plantation, was standing next to a flatbed train car with the implement still onboard, about to be unloaded.
This Reeve’s Steam Traction plow was massive. It occupied the entire train car. Upon doing a little research into this “tractor,” it was an impressive modern marvel of the time. The cost of the unit in 1908 was in the range of $3,000 to 3,500 depending on the package. In today’s money that is in the $110,000 to $145,000 bracket.
The rear wheels on the Reeve’s Traction plow were huge. They were solid steel and measured 24 inches wide and stood six feet tall. The entire weight of the unit was upward of 10 tons, and that wasn’t including implements or coal and water weight. The 1908 model could carry up to 600 gallons of water for steam production, which added another 4,800 pounds when the unit was full of water.
The steam boiler operated between 140-160 pounds per square inch. The speed of the traction plow was up to two and a half miles per hour.
At this pace and burning around a ton and a half of coal, the steam plow could cultivate up to sixty acres per day.
It would have been a true sight to see this massive piece of equipment working in the field of Tensas Parish. Fortunately, the Times-Picayune was able to take a picture and capture the moment in history when Tensas Parish received its first steam traction plow.
