Tractor History by A.C. Seyfarth -- 1910-1934

              thatn the working out of an idea. It involved selling the idea to those with whom the decision to build or not to build rested.

It will be recalled that the year 1921 was a year of depression, gloom, and retrenchment. It is quite likely that some of the pessimism of the times took the form of opposition to any idea, the returns from which lay in a too distant and too dubious future. After their experience with the motor cultivator, it is not surprising that the sales organization had not been particularly enthusiastic about cultivating tractors. However, Mr. A.E. McKinstry, vice president in charge of sales, quite evidently did not intend to overlook the possibilities of this type of tractor. In the fall of 1921 he sent C.C. Aspenwell to Iowa to check up and make complete report on two Farmalls that had been in operation there that year. Mr Aspenwall was given to understand that the future of the Farmall might very possibly be decided on the basis of his report. Mr Aspenwall's judgment was that there was a good future for a tractor of this type but that there was still something to be desired in the design of the current tractor.

Progress in 1922

It has already been noted that final conclusions as to production of experimental Farmall tractors for 1922 covered 20 tractors, cultivators, push binders, etc. McCormick Works Decision No. 4002 put this decision of the New Work Committee, which was reported in New Work Report No. 542, on record at McCormick Works. The tractor at this time was still of the reversible type with three speeds in either direction. There is a gap in the documentary evidence available, but, from the statements of those who were engaged on the work and from the photographic evidence, we are able to fill in what actually happened. While work was getting under way toward the production of the 20 Farmalls, another model was being developed, radically different. On June 23 Mr. Legge expressed considerable discouragement with the progress that had been made. He said that the reports coming in on the tractors indicated that they were being followed by Company men and that, in his belief, we should never get an expression of opinion from farmers that way. He thought that if the machines were so complicated that we feared to turn them over to the farmers to operate, we must be a long way from anything that could be adopted for manufacture. On the 25th of July the new tractor mentioned above was demonstrated at the Harvester Farm. Mr. Legge said that after see4ing this tractor at work at Hinsdale he was at least satisfied that some progress was being made. He said that "the small machine which had brought out was a big improvement." He stipulated that the Farmall must