Several ways to check for spark. It works the same whether you have a battery ignition or a magneto. Look at what your distributor cap is attached to. If it is clamped onto a boxy looking affair, flat on the sides, round on the bottom and a rectangular cap screwed to the the top you have a magneto. It the cap is clamped to a cylindrical affair with a neck between it and the motor, you have battery igniton.
To check for spark, pull the center wire out of the cap. Slide the boot on it back a little to expose the wire terminal inside. place that terminal very close (1/16" or 1/8" at most) to a piece of metal that will ground. The clip that holds the distributor cap on is usually handy and good for this. Have someone crank the motor by hand. If you have a magneto, you should see a spark as the motor is turned. A healthy spark will be blue. If you have a battery ignition, you'll need to have a good charge on your battery and the ignition switch (the push/pull one) on to get a spark. If you get a weak (yellow) spark or none at all, you'll have to do some troubleshooting, and the points will be as good a place to start as any. Your books, when you get them, will walk you through how to get to them.
As far as the oil, the drain plug is at the bottom of the oil pan and is threaded. What was being described is to loosen it just enough for it to just start to run. Don't pull it all the way out as you would if you were going to drain it. What you want is something like a mayonnaise jar (or a funnel into a gallon jug) to collect the very first of what drains out of the bottom of the pan. If there's water in the motor, the bottom is where it will be. Depending on what and how much you get, this can tell you a lot.
A motor that has been sitting that long will accumulate some water just from condensation. If you don't get a whole jarful or maybe a little more, that's likely what caused it and would indicate that you might be okay with just an oil change (along with the other advice about lubing the cylinders) before running the motor.
If you get water and antifreeze from the pan before you start getting oil, you can count on having some work ahead of you. It may be as simple as a bad head gasket, but could also be a cracked head or block, and will need checking out.
If you get a LOT of plain water before you start getting oil --- you need to find out what's in the radiator. If you can't see anything at the neck at the top (or if you've topped it off with water earlier), drain a little bit from the bottom. If there's antifreeze in the radiator, you can breathe a little easier as the odds of the head gasket or the cracked head and block being a problem have just been reduced, though not eliminated. The excess water could have been caused by heavy condensation over a long period of time or, if the tractor was left outdoors with the exhaust uncovered, could have come from rainwater down the stack. The latter would suggest you'll need some valve work in the head, but I tend to doubt that rain is the cause, as any rainwater would have to flow down through the exhaust valves and around the piston rings and in most cases would have left you with a stuck motor, which you don't have.
If the tractor was running when they parked it, the best diagnostic scenario at this point would be some, a little, or no water in the oilpan, and antifreeze in the radiator.
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