1930s Caterpillar Tractors. Trading Mules in for a New Caterpillar Tractor

The story about Deereskinners 1939 D4 got me to thinking about a story I heard from a Barfield Montpellier CA. Grain Farmer 50 years ago.       In the 30s nobody had any Money, in the case of the dry land Barley Farmers they didn’t have much either, But they all had MULES and at that time there was still a good market for good big Mules so the CAT Dealers would take take them on trade for a new ENGINE which is what everybody called Caterpillar Tractors when I was a kid. Most of the farmers would keep their Leader Mules for odd jobs as  they were the only ones broke to drive the rest just followed the leaders!  The Gentleman that told me this story got a new Diesel 40 and in 1973 he still had one of his old leaders in the pasture I don’t know how old it was but OLD!!!  I was raised by that generation of Mule to Tractor people and they were just as particular with their Tractors as they were with the Mules,  deereskiners D4 shows it after 84 years and to be that pristine! compared to the junk they sell today. 17afarmer