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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The one that got away
While traveling a side road in Woodstock, Conn., I drove by a deserted farm. The barn was rundown, with a door missing, and a bank foreclosure sign stood in the yard. I'm not ordinarily a person who trespasses on someone else's property, but curiosity took over as I wondered what piece of iron might be inside that barn.
I backed up in front of the barn but couldn't see much inside the dark opening. Determined to have a closer look, I jumped out of my pick up truck, pushed my way through the tall weeds and carefully peered into the barn. When my eyes adjusted to the dim light, I saw the familiar outline of a dusty tractor steering wheel poking out of a collection of crates, buckets and long-forgotten farm tools. Boy, was I excited! My tractor meter was pegged! This was a model I'd never seen.
The hood was missing and the tractor was so dusty that I couldn't tell what color it used to be. I wiped off the grille and saw it was a rusty orange. My first thought was that it must be an Allis-Chalmers, or maybe a Case, but the styling puzzled me. It had a strange-looking single-front wheel with a very primitive-style fork.
This is some of what I discovered: The General was made from 1939 to 1941 by the Cleveland Tractor Co. of Cleveland, Ohio. General GG was the model designation, and it was available exclusively in tricycle configuration. A Hercules IXA-3, four-cylinder, 3- by 4-inch gasoline engine, rated at 12-15 hp, powered the unit. This was the only wheeled tractor ever offered by the Cleveland Tractor Co., makers of the once famous "Cletrac" Crawlers.
After 1941, the B.F. Avery Co. sold this tractor, painted red and \with a slightly larger, 3 1/8 inch-bore Hercules engine. It also was sold for two years by Massey-Harris dealers, but there, it remained Cletrac yellow and did not bear the Massey name.
I called the lawyer's telephone number on the foreclosure sign and was referred to the bank holding the mortgage. The bank staff was kind enough to help me contact the owner. "I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the tractor," the owner told me, "but I'll let you know."
A few weeks later I got brave and called him again. "My brother came and took it to Maine," he told me. Oh, well, nice thought. It was fun to see this rare tractor, but it sure would have been even more fun to bring it back to life.
Howard A. Budd, Center Farm, Box 5, Eastford, CT 06242
Puzzle posed by wheels
I wonder if someone might know what this set of wheels might have been. I don't know if it was used this way or turned over. Any help would be appreciated.