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

              One of the things that had to be settled in the early part of 1924 was the price for which the farmall was to sell. Mr. McKinstry had indicated a price of $825 on the farmall and $88.50 on the cultivating attachment (two-row). These prices showed a substantial loss on the sale of 200 machines due to the fact that the machines all had to be built by hand. It was recongnized, hoever, that the loss must be taken as representing an introductory cost. The prices were approved.

On March 17, 1924, the European conference recommended taking steps toward patenting the Farmall features in Austria, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Roumania, and Sweden.

In May, 1924, a number of testimonials were received from farmers in Colorado, Ohio, Oiwa, Illinois, indiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee, all speaknig highly of the Farmall tractor. One man said he had been using teh Farmall with a two-row lister and was highly pleased and that he would like to get three or four more Farmalls.

Mr. Legge's file contained a number of testimonial letters, but it is hardly worth while to go into them as they are all about of the same tenor as testimonials received today, indicating that the Farmalls put out in 1924 were givine a good account of themselves.

Mr. Perkins, in a letter written in July, reported a very interesting trip checking upon farmalls. He said that the general reports were satisfactory, though there were still a few refinements to be accomplished. In his opinion the farmalls, judged from the standpoing of the men who operated them and of the superintendents of the farms, were highly satisfactory, but he thought we still needed the approval of those who were financing the farms.
Mr. Legge at this time was confident that we were going to make something out of the farmall development, but he still didn't feel that we had it in shape to justify putting it on the market in very large numbers. In his opinion there was still some redesigning to do and some weaknesses to be eliminated before we would dare put it on the market. He thought that we still had a great amount of work to do in the designing of implements and attachments to go with the Farmall.
By July 26, 111 delivered sales were recorded. Practically all the undelivered tractors at that time (205 were built for 1924) were in the Central and Northwestern Districts, and Mr. McKinstry reported that he thought a pretty good job of demonstrating them had been done. On November 18 Mr. McKinstry recommended increasing the price to $950, his most important reason being that he thought the higher price would test the market on the farmall. On the 19th a price letter went out to the various branches pricing the farmall at $950; the cultivator attachment at $88.50; mower attachment, $55; middle breaker attachement less bottoms, $25; corn planter hitch, $6.25; fenders, $15. This letter went to Aurora; Davenport; Fort Wayne; Indianapolis; Peoria; Richmond; Indiana; Columbus, Ohio; Toledo; Little Rock; Memphis; Sioux City; Des Moines; Lincon; and Salina. Another letter with slightly lower prices went to