Here's a little more from that article. It says one way to tell an Avery A from a General is that the Avery had the serial number punched in the top of the right hand frame rail, just ahead of the rear axle. The Cleveland built General had a serial number plate ONLY.
Because of that, I'd say if you don't find those numbers punched in, but maybe do find little holes where the rivets were, for a serial tag, it was built by Cletrac. The article states too, that the Massey Harris version had a tag stating that it was sold by Massey Harris.
Where some of the confusion might come from concerning an Avery vs a Cletrac is that Avery designed and built all the implements for them, and the article says that Avery had exclusive distribution rights through it's branches and dealers in 13 southern states. Throughout the balance of the United States, the Cleveland Tractor Company (Cletrac) would have charge of the tractor distribution.
Cletrac dealers weren't too keen on even selling a wheel tractor after extoling the virtues of track tractors for so long. The HG crawler would actually out pull the General. In February 1942, Avery purchased the General from Cletrac, including all work in progress, parts, inventory, dies, jigs and patent rights. Avery was allotted a limited amount of steel and raw materials to keep production going during the war.
That's one more thing that makes me think the Massey Harris General was likely made by Cletrac, not by Avery. Did Avery even export any tractors to Canada during the war, given limited production and such strong domestic demand? The Pony came out in 47 and they were built in Canada. Tractors were still hard to come by for a few years after the war due to the shift back from wartime production and the high demand, making me question whether Avery would have exported tractors to Canada before the Pony came out.
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Today's Featured Article - When Push Comes to Shove - by Dave Patterson. When I was a “kid” (still am to a deree) about two I guess, my parents couldn’t find me one day. They were horrified (we lived by the railroad), my mother thought the worst: "He’s been run over by a train, he’s gone forever!" Where did they find me? Perched up on the seat of the tractor. I’d probably plowed about 3000 acres (in my head anyway) by the time they found me. This is where my love for tractors started and has only gotten worse in my tender 50 yrs on this “green planet”. I’m par
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