Building on a Solid Foundation

When the tractor testing program began at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln in 1920, about 160 companies were building tractors in the U.S. That first year, 69 machines were tested, a figure that hasn’t been matched since. The 1920 tests included such names as Allwork, Coleman, Dart, Emerson-Brantingham, Frick, Gray, Heider, LaCrosse (the only “line-drive” tractor ever tested), Monarch, Parrett, Samson, Square Turn, Townsend, Uncle Sam and Wisconsin, as well as more familiar marques of Case, Fordson, Huber, International and Rumely.

Any manufacturer who wanted a tractor tested at Nebraska had to make application, pay a $500 fee, and wait until the