Massey-Harris was founded in Newcastle, Ontario, Canada, as a blacksmithery in the mid-1800s. As it evolved into an agricultural equipment manufacturer, just one product was missing from its repertoire: a tractor. The company tried to acquire tractor makers, and it tried making tractors, but its efforts coincided with tough financial conditions either at Massey itself, or in the economy generally. The company was selling Wallis tractors as a dealer when it bought JJ Case Plow Works in 1928; Case owned Wallis, and just like that, Massey finally had its tractor. As the market matured, the support system around horses dissipated, raising costs for smaller farmers. Manufacturers stepped into the breach, including Farmall with its Cub, John Deere with its Model L – and Massey-Harris with its “four horsemen”: the Pony, the Pacer, the Colt, and the Mustang. Here on eBay is an example of the smallest of these, a 1950 Pony, equipped with a sickle bar mower. It’s located in Colonial Heights, Virginia, and it’s priced at $3750.
Massey eventually merged with Ferguson, but during the duration of Pony production, it was sold as a Massey-Harris, except for a very few examples painted grey and branded as Fergusons. The Pony weighs less than 1900 lbs in operating trim and sits on a 66″ wheelbase. It’s powered by a 10 hp one-liter Continental four-cylinder paired with a three-speed manual gearbox. Top speed is about 11 mph. The pedal-actuated band brakes operate on the rear drums. Ponys are two-wheel drive, as were all the “horsemen”. This example has new tires and a new battery.
A bare metal seat is centered at the rear of the tractor, with an easy sight line past the engine cover. If a buyer stepped up to the Pacer, that seat was padded. That sickle bar mower might cut a little hay, but the Pony will be hard-pressed to haul a baler! More than 28,000 Pony tractors were made; shop manuals and some parts are available.
The headlights and the single tail lamp are about the only modern items on this vintage Pony other than its tires. If you are inclined toward tractor collecting, the Pony is a great starter machine, and this one might even be useful around a small farm. What about you – have you ever been tempted to add a tractor to your garage?
Headlites for that extra long shift in the field. MF was a respected name up here in the day 🍁 🚜
This looks to be a very nice small tractor and could be useful on a small farm. Im not so sure about the sickle bar mower in real life though. It appears to not be a live PTO, meaning that the tractor needs to be moving for the sickle to cut. It is not independently powered. If you have ever run one, you know there are many times the sickle needs to be moving independently of the speed so you can clear it out in heavy cutting.
Also it appears that the belt is tensioned with a crank? Once it is a engaged, it cannot be disengaged unless you stop and unwind the tension. This is going to be a real PITA because you will not be able to raise the sickle to the travel position (like it is shown) Unless you are fully stopped or you will break the pitman arm due to the 90 degree angle of the cutter. In real life you need to raise the sickle many times during a cut, at the end of the row for instance.
If you can put up with the quirks this might be a nice way to mow a large yard. The mid mount position of the sickle is very good. Not many have that today. The price is fair considering the cost of new tires alone and the condition is very good.
I still use a sickle mower today, but it is hydraulic and can be started and stopped and raised at any time.
It’s a live pto off the rear, dont need ground speed to operate the sickle bar.
No standard PTO limits it a bit. Lovely machine but belongs in an Agricultural museum I think. Just take it out once a year and lose a few fingers and it’s winner winner chicken dinner.
I had a semi-mount NI mower on the back of an Oliver 70, like this unit, push the clutch in stops forward motion and the mower. Spring assist lever to raise the cutter bar a foot or so at the far end to clean out, backup, or turn, you just have to be in the right frame of mind to run this old equipment. The hard part to any of these old mowers is getting them mounted. The nice thing about a mid-mount mower like this is it turns with you as opposed to swinging out behind you with a rear mount mower.
I certainly want to buy this tractor mower.
How do I Bid on this ?
Am from Canada ( Calgary)
In the first paragraph of the article you’ll see “Here on eBay”. Click that and it will take you right to the seller’s listing.
Sweet little tractor! Priced about right. The sickle bar mower is handy for creek banks and road edges and takes little power to run, unlike a bush hog or rotory mower. A lot of these were set up with cultivators back in the day. Lots of aftermarket parts available to keep this old gal running and working. Have to have a cushion on that steel seat though!
Especially in the Texas summers! 🔥
That’s a lot of iron for 10hp!
A few of these made it out west. They had good competition in the form of the International Farmall A though. Lots of them still operating on a daily basis. They don’t have a live PTO so there’s a little practice learning to run the mower with that. Popular tractor in my region…
Michelle, I believe you mean J.I. Case. Neat little tractor. Sickle mowers are challenging in the real world. Cool, but challenging.
I did, Bunky! Sorry! … his middle name was “Increase” – a very common Puritan name back in the day, meant to convey spiritual abundance. I looked this up months ago when I was dinking around with an article on a Case tractor, you’d think I could have got it right!
old tractors are just so cool.
This is great!!! If it were mine, I’d just run it the way it is. It looks like a very good solid original little tractor. I like that sickle bar mower too. Thanks Michelle!!!
If it runs and does tractor stuff, put it to work !!!
I agree that the price is about right. I have 2 Massey Fergusons a 1957 50 series and a 1958 65 series. I obtained the 50 very cheap and knew it had an engine issue. And found out afterwards that the engine parts I needed were not available. But are now. So it sits in the yard along with my other agricultural items as yard art. The 65 runs like a top and sees use about once a week. Old/antique tractors are very very prolific in this area and there are at least 2 shows every year. There are also very large regional shows throughout the country.
I had a Massy Harris Pony with sickle bar mower and mowing along a bank it caught onto something and almost went over the bank. They are light tractors and it took me a lot of time to find a radiator fan assembly and I think I got the only in existence. Then I sold it and bought a john Deere 750 4×4 with hydraulics and power steering , What a difference
Living out in the desert. I find that 4 wheel drive would be very beneficial. With the front bucket full of gravel on my 1958 Massey Ferguson it’s very easy to get stuck in the sand/loose dirt. And that’s with ballast in the tires. I love my old Massey. But the next tractor will be 4X4.
I spent seven hours a day, five days a week for several summers during my school years mowing the expansive campus of my high school with a MH Pacer, which differed very little from the Pony except for a slight increase in engine displacement yielding 3 more horsepower, as I recall. The tractor had the same side-mount sickle bar as shown, and we towed a self-powered Mott hammer knife mower as well, depending on what areas we were mowing. The PTO and belt pulley were engaged (with the clutch disengaged) by the lever that sticks up from the side of the transmission case under the seat. As someone noted, the PTO and the motion of the tractor started together. If the mower plugged, the transmission was shifted to neutral, and the engagement of the clutch then ran the mower with the tractor stationary. Many tractors of this era used this “transmission drive” PTO, until “live” or “independent” PTO’s became the norm. It was a workable arrangement for its day. Our Pacer had a simple hydraulic rockshaft to raise and lower the mower, or other mounted attachments like snow blades, plows, harrows, cultivators, etc. (all of which the school owned, strangely.) I learned quite quickly that the bell crank at the front of the tractor for the steering tie rods and drag link needed frequent lubrication, or the steering became very difficult. The front axle and spindles were fairly damage-prone with hard use; I’ve seen both Ponys and Pacers with extensive welding on the front axle. The braces from the front axle back to the transmission case on both sides appear on this tractor to be round bars. On the Pacer, the round bar has a piece of steel welded to the under side of the bar as a reinforcement, and I believe the newer Pony tractors came from the factory with that extra bracing. The school’s Pony also had a snow plow which we used to clear the sidewalks around the building in winter. We had the “luxury” of one of those canvas windbreakers that had a plastic windscreen, but was entirely open on top and the rear. It was better than nothing, but not by much! Imagine turning a 14 or 15 year-old to mow 126 acres with minimal supervision, and when I made it all the way around, it was time to start over! I did that job every summer until my last year of college in the ’60’s. Obviously being a farm kid helped my employability.
I have a 1946 Ford 2N tractor and I just bought a snowplow for it. I believe it is a Dearborn plow. It was originally raised and lowered by the 3 point hitch arms by way of cables and pulleys and the plow pivoted by hand, but the previous owner converted it to hydraulics. The tractor’s hydraulics don’t work and it has no lights so I have to address those before Thanksgiving.
Have fun! I used the front bucket on my Massey Ferguson 65 from my 50. ( which has a shorter wheelbase) I made adapters where needed and went out to test it. It worked one time and the drive shaft broke. (ran off the front crank pulley) I tried everywhere to find that octagon shaft and was not able to come up with one. So I ran a pump off of the PTO. So if I need to run the auger I just unlatch the pump and hook it up out of the way on a bracket that I made. Last year I was at a farm sale and there was the shaft that I needed years ago. I bought it for $1 just for grins. I will most likely never use it. As a side note when performing hydraulic repairs.Tractor Supply has the best and cheapest selection of hydraulic hoses/lines.
There’s a huge tractor museum in the area of VA this tractor is being sold. I wonder if this tractor is coming from them? My wife and I visited it around 8 years ago and enjoyed it.