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Excerpted from wikipedia on Forson Tractors:
Fordson was a brand name used on a range of mass produced all-purpose tractors manufactured by Henry Ford and Son from 1917 until 1920 when it was merged into the Ford Motor Company, which used the name until 1964. American engineer, inventor and businessman Henry Ford built experimental tractors from automobile components during the early 1900s, and launched a prototype known as the Model B in August 1915. He formed Henry Ford and Son in 1910 in Dearborn, Michigan, taking his young son Edsel Ford as a partner, which was later incorporated on July 27, 1917. The first Fordson Model F was completed in 1916 and was the first lightweight, mass produced tractor in the world, making it possible for the average farmer to own a tractor for the first time. It went into mass production in 1917 and sold for $750. The original Fordson used a 20 horsepower, four-cylinder vaporising oil engine, a three-speed spur gear transmission (the three forward speeds ranged from approximately 2.25 to 61/4 mph), and a worm gear reduction set in the differential.
The Fordson Model F was completed in 1916 and was the first lightweight, mass produced tractor in the world, making it possible for the average farmer to own a tractor for the first time. Ford incorporated his private company, Henry Ford and Son, Inc, to mass produce the tractor on July 27, 1917. At a hurriedly built factory in Dearborn, Michigan, he used the same assembly line techniques he used to mass produce the Ford Model T. It took thirty hours and forty minutes to convert the raw materials into the 4,000 parts used for the tractor assembly. The Fordson sold for US$750 ($14,124 in 2007 dollars); and each unit cost $567.14 to manufacture (including labor, materials and overheads), leaving a profit of $182.86 on each unit
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