Moving slowly through the sweet-corn fields of California in 1954 was a weird tractor on stilts. The tractor was used to dust and detassel the high corn.
The builder started with a 21-horsepower crawler tractor. He raised the tractor chassis including the motor and transmission so there would be 78 inches of clearance beneath it. Side frames – the “stilts – support the tractor in this position. Additional sprockets and links of track were installed on each side. The result was a tractor that rolls through the high corn, dusting and detasseling it even during wet weather when rubber-tired tractors bog down in the mud.
It has 6-1/2 feet clearance and straddles two rows of corn while dusting 12. A framework across the back holds the dusting equipment. During detasseling, men ride on hangers dropped down between the rows alongside the tractor.
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