Alright folks, someone I know just attended an antique tractor show and posted a picture of this weird one with the seat off to one side and the engine/hood off to the other.
On twitter, JoeyM's friend said:
These offset tractors were particularly cool to see. Anyone know the story behind this design?
I figure that if it is obscure and mechanical, you guys are the best source of information that I know of. Does anyone have a guess why they'd design the tractor this way? I thought maybe to make it easier to see where the front right wheel is in relationship to a row of crops, but that's just a guess. Do we have any tractor historians int he house?
The picture is blocked for me at work. Was it a Farmall Cub?
wikipedia said:
The market of this little tractor was the small-acreage farmer, and it was designed by Farmall engineers in the years following World War II to replace a horse or mule for farming purposes. The tractor was offset to the left, while the driver's seat and steering wheel were on the right. This concept was called "CultiVision", resulting in a clear view while working the fields.
Line of sight. To the left is crap, but striaght ahead is completely clear.
EvanB wrote:
The picture is blocked for me at work. Was it a Farmall Cub?
wikipedia said:
The market of this little tractor was the small-acreage farmer, and it was designed by Farmall engineers in the years following World War II to replace a horse or mule for farming purposes. The tractor was offset to the left, while the driver's seat and steering wheel were on the right. This concept was called "CultiVision", resulting in a clear view while working the fields.
Yes, that was it.....you guys are amazing.
David S. Wallens wrote:
For oval tracks.
Somehow, I doubt this, but it is probably going to be my favorite answer in the thread. 
As stated, it was to give you a better view of what you're driving over. This is particularly helpful when you're hilling potatoes or cultivating. Both of these attachments, and others, hang underneath the Farmall. I have a '51 Cub like the one pictured above and it doesn't really feel that strange when driving it.
RossD
UltimaDork
7/11/17 2:04 p.m.
Is my early 1960s Allis Chalmers D17 antique enough for this thread? 
It's great fun. I just need to do something with the hydraulics to separate the front from the rear implement as they are on the same circuit.
They are cultivating tractors, very common in vegetable farming very very common in tobacco farming. They started small and went up to the International 140. Kubota made a diesel powered version that was head and shoulders above anything Farmall or Intetnational produced.
oldtin
PowerDork
7/11/17 2:56 p.m.
We had one of those on the farm (tobacco). Very useful when plants were young and small.
In addition to what's been mentioned I imagine they're more comfortable in the summer than the normal kind where you're sitting over a transmission that probably gets pretty warm when worked hard.
And those look downright normal next to an Allis Chalmers G.
Yup. Used for horticulture so you can see the plants you're destroying 
Many brands did this. There is also the Row Crop style like the early John Deere 2-cylinders and early Olivers. They moved the front wheels to the center and all the implements were designed to make crop rows that were spaced to accommodate the furrows.
The offset pillion on that Cub also kept you lower. Some orchards purchased that style to keep themselves lower to go under fruit tree branches.
Oliver Row Crop:
