Incidentally, the Gustafson Model H was sold with Ceresan, an ethyl mercury-based seed treatment fungicide from Bayer. Ben Gustafson followed his Model H with many more innovative inventions: the first cottonseed treater in 1935; the Model K primarily for the application of dry seed treatments to peas and beans in 1937; and the Model G slurry treater to treat hybrid seed corn in 1945.
No. 1 in the US
By 1946 Gustafson was one of just two US companies manufacturing commercial seed treaters, and the only one making slurry treaters. Since most Americans were working with slurry treatment products (a watery mixture of insoluble matter), Gustafson had emerged as the country’s then leading treater manufacturer. Demand for Gustafson slurry treaters was so great that the company had to switch to a ‘Detroit-style” assembly line around 1948.
The Model R roll feed multi-slurry treater launched in 1949 had a capacity of 500-600 bushels an hour, depending on the seed type being treated – a quantum leap in application speed in less than 20 years.