November/December 2026 Antique Power

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cover feature | 1936 Minneapolis-Moline Twin City JT-O

The November/December 2026 issue of Antique Power magazine is available in our gift shop and will be available in subscriber mailboxes soon. The 1936 Minneapolis-Moline Twin City JT-O is this issue’s cover tractor! Please note: Starting with this issue, Antique Power is moving to a direct subscriber-only model. Visit our Subscription page to sign up today!

Twin City in the Big Orange

Orchard tractors were popular in California, and this 1936 Minneapolis-Moline Twin City JT-O met that demand!

Story by Chad Elmore, Photos by Brad Bowling

Tractor farming gained traction early in California, especially in the central and southern regions of the state. It was in those areas that an extended growing season contributed to power and labor representing as much as 60 percent of the investment required to produce the state’s crops.

Consider that more than 150,000 farmers reportedly attended a tractor demonstration in Los Angeles in 1918. There, they could compare the products of 60 different tractor makers from California as well as Eastern states. 

California Gov. William D. Stephens attended the event and drove some of the tractors out on the field. During an address in a Parlin & Orendorff implement dealer’s tent, he predicted that California would someday be the largest agricultural state in the Union.

The farm equipment show was organized by the Traction Engine & Implement Dealers Assoc. and set up on 500 acres south of what is today’s Hancock Park and Wilshire Boulevard, on the once-sprawling Rancho La Brea. Once part of a 4,439-acre ranch, the urban park is home to the La Brea Tar Pits, where now-extinct Ice Age mammals were trapped and preserved in the natural asphalt long ago.

The dealer event had enjoyed significant growth in three short years; only 3,000 people showed up to see the seven tractors displayed for the association’s first show.

By the mid-1920s, gasoline-engine tractors were the dominant source of power for field work in California, and some adaptations of tractors—of the wheeled and tracked varieties—were catching on in orchards and vineyards. Water management came to cities and farms throughout the state, thanks to federal flood control and irrigation projects in the 1930s. The exponential growth in farms and population was set in motion. Today, California does lead the United States in agricultural economic output and is home to anywhere between 300 or 400 crops, depending on who is counting.

For the state to reach that level, a wide range of crops was tried. Some failed; other growers moved to a different region of the state and tried again.

Orange County, in Southern California, became the nation’s “citrus central.”

To read the full story, order a copy of the November/December 2026 issue of Antique Power magazine!

Other articles in this issue include:

  • A Century of Case Innovation — Exploring why the Model 20-40 was the “little” Case (Story by Madison Nickel, Photos by Brad Bowling).

  • The Little L — John Deere’s LA and LI were siblings with more than skin-deep differences! (Story by Robert Gabrick, John Deere LA Photos by Eric Schulzinger, and John Deere LI Photos by Brad Bowling)

  • Paper Farming — A look at patriotic tractors.

  • Scaled Down, Built Up: The Only Gehl for Me — A tribute to Tom Brunner’s precision craftsmanship.

  • Keeping History Alive: G Whiz! — How a 1948 Allis-Chalmers Model G tractor runs like new.

  • Regular departments including From the Editor, Letters to the Editor, Photos from the Attic, Classifieds, Show Guide, Tech Tips, and Gallery.

Antique Power is moving to a direct subscriber-only model to ensure you never miss an issue! Enjoy the convenience of having your magazine delivered right to your doorstep.