Why Persian Orange?

One of most competent people who have worked at Allis-Chalmers, was without doubt Harry Merrit. Then Harry became director of the Tractor division in 1926 with the intention to shut down the factory after 10 years of losses.

The first thing he did was the dismantling of a 20-35 tractor. Every component was laid on the floor and attentively examined. Where possible he began replacing components with lighter and cheaper parts. After the refit the tractor costs were lowered by a third and they were making profit also.

In 1929, Merrit saw on tour by California the immense fields with orange "red poppies" (the national flower of California). This color was very striking; therefore Merrit picked a flower, brought it to Milwaukee and ordered a sample of the color in paint.  He was well aware of the fact that an striking colored tractor would receive much more attention than the green one, therefore as from 1929 became all Allis-Chalmers tractors no longer provided in dark green, but in the color "Persian Orange”.(nl)

The first tractor, shown below, was the model U-United of 1929.

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