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• mustangtony saved to Advertising - 1919 Tractors and Farming Equipment

This is a 1919 newspaper advertisement for the Gray Wide-Drive Drum Tractor made by the Gray Tractor Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
-- The Gray tractor has its origins in the orchard tractor developed by a New York fruit grower, W. Chandler Knapp. Knapp marketed his two-cylinder design as the Knapp Farm Locomotive, which was notable for its two rear drive wheels that were joined together to improve traction. Further modifications saw the use of a four-cylinder Waukesha engine and the replacement of the two rear drive wheels with a single fully-enclosed drum that was driven by a chain. The Knapp tractor company was bought by the 'Gray Tractor Manufacturing Co. in 1914 and the "drum-drive" tractor was renamed the Gray Model A 20-35 tractor. A smaller Gray Model B 15-25 was later added to the lineup. In 1917 the company was renamed as the Gray Tractor Co. In 1917 the Gray 18-36 model was added to the line up, which was built until 1922 and was probably the most popular tractor produced by the company. In the 1920s, the Gray 22-40 "Canadian Special" was added, but the general design was outdated and the company ceased tractor production during the early 1930s. The tractor was imported into France after WWI as the American tractor.