My great-grandfather's 2hp delivery truck

[Laurentiu]

I was born and lived in Romania until 7-8 years ago and I still visit once in a while and it's nothing uncommon to see people/work horses/bulls/cows doing the plowing, harvesting, reaping etc.

Until a few years back everybody saw that as medieval practices for people who can't afford to buy tractors etc. but nowadays more and more people (including my grandparents ) are starting to realize organic agriculture can be a way of making a decent living. EU also encourages some of these things although unfortunately billions and billions of euro subsidies goes into intensive farming of which we all know what kind of un-natural unhealthy things result.

I've attached some photos, some are blk/wht not because of age but for artistic effect :

[Bicycle Bob]

So, imagine a SUV being drawn by eight teams like that. I usually call that shot "Why we build motors" - look at that tiny sickle bar! It took only about 10% of the power. Around here, separate threshing machines were more popular, running from wood or coal fired steam engines. The first "field engines" look like tractors, but were really just self-propelled, sometimes towing the thresher on easy ground. The early gasoline tractors had their cooling systems designed and built by redundant steamfitters, with air passages like fire tubes.