John Deere Buggies and Wagons
Ralph Hughes was born in Indiana where he spent much of his time on his familys farm. He graduated from the School of Agriculture at Purdue University. He remained at Purdue to work for both the Agricultural Extension Service and the Agricultural Experiment Station, editing information  bulletins and writing new releases. He joined Deere & Company in 1954, starting as a writer for The Furrow, the Companys farm magazine. Later, he wrote advertising copy for a variety of John Deere products, including farm and industrial tractors, lawn and garden tractors, corn planters, grain drills, manure spreaders, and farm wagons. In 1984, he was appointed Director of Advertising, the position from which he retired in 1992. During his 38 years of service, he not only learned much about John Deere products, but also about Deere & Companys history. Ralph Hughes has also written two other books about John Deere: The first was on the two-cylinder tractors and entitled How Johnny Popper Replaced the Horse; and the second was about John Deere scale-model toy tractors, The Toy and the Real McCoy.