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

              About October 27th, Mr. B. F, Jarvis v/as sent to Geneva to assist me with this work, and we stayed around Aurora and Geneva testing this machine until December 3rd when it froze up and the machine was re-shipped to Chicago.
During this time gasoline was selling for 12 and 13^ a gallon, and I was getting good board and room for $1,00 per day. This machine like all tractors was exceptionally hard to start on cold, frosty mornings, and it was necessary to soak rags with gasoline and wrap them around the intake pipe and heat this pipe and mixer thoroughly before we could get the motor started. We had no very good facilities for handling our fuel, so the writer procured two three-gallon candy buckets, one for water and one for gasoline. The gasoline pail had a large red "G" painted on the side, but this became covered with grease so that it was practically impossible to tell them apart, and one morning Mr. Jarvis filled the v;ater bucket with gasoline. We had just thoroughly warmed the tractor up and got it started, and the rags that were on the mixer were knocked off and fell under the tractor. Being afraid that these burning rags might set the grease afire on the tractor, of which there was quite an extra amount, I picked up what I presumed was the water bucket and dashed the three gallon contents under the tractor to put out these burning rags. Mr, Jarvis was in the cab and had presence of mind enough to throv/ in the clutch before jumping out. The sight that followed, while expensive in a way, was really beautiful. The tractor walked off across the field dropping a burning board from the cab about evei^"- hundred feet. After the cab and wood parts had completely burned off and we had again lassoed "Barney" as v/e called her, we spent the rest of the day putting on a canopy and thereafter had to do v/ithout a cab.

On December 28th, I was sent to Maik Center, Ohio to investigate a tractor that had been running there nearly the entire summer. This tractor was setting opposite a bam about half covered v/ith snow, and I got the surprise of my life when, after priming this machine and turning on the batteries, I got up and tramped on the fly/iheel and it started the first turn over.
On February'- 15th, 1911, I went to Kirkland, 111., to replace cylinders on a tractor ovmed by Mr. McQueen. On this particular machine the piston pins had come loose and scored the cylinders badly. The cause of this was the connecting rod bolt did not draw the connecting rod on the piston pin giving it a little chance for play and it finally cut its way through the bolt, slid endways and damaged the cylinders.
On the 17th day of March, Mr. Johnston called me in his office and told me they had about tv/o weeks' work in Montana at Great Falls inthe Helena territory. I left Chicago for Great Falls on Iferch 18th, and did not return to Chicago until October 15th. Therefore, when Mr. Johnston sent me out on a two week trip I always took six month's supply of clothing along.