I've been going through 8N owners manuals page by page and documenting the changes made from one edition to the next. It's taking a long time because I only do it at work when it's really slow and there's nothing else productive to do.

Right now I'm comparing form 3729-48-H from August 1948 to the next edition which is form 3729-49-C dated March 1949. This is the first manual that shows a picture of the tractor on the cover.

One interesting change that I'm finding throughout the manual is that in every case where the words "hydraulic system" appear in the '48 manual, the '49 manual says "hydraulic control". This applies to section headings, page headings, table of contents and anywhere in the text those words appear.

In most cases the words "hydraulic system" make perfect sense in the context, yet they've been changed without fail to "hydraulic control". It makes me wonder if somehow Ferguson's lawsuit went so far as to claim that use of the word "system" somehow infringed on his patent. I don't believe the suit had been settled by March '49 so I'm really just guessing here.

Makes a lot of sense to me Jim. Could be as you mentioned or just lawyers preparing for the suit, after all it had always been known as the Ferguson "System" and Ford Tractor needed to distance itself from that.