Not so many years ago farm plows were made of cast iron. Then came the steel moldboard, which was supposed to be the acme of perfection in plow making. Steel would scour and turn the furrow in fluffy soils where cast iron would just root along without turning the ground at all. Later the art of molding steel was studied and perfected until many grades and degrees of hardness were produced and the shape of the moldboard passed through a thousand changes. The idea all the time was to make plows that would not only scour but polish in all kinds of soil. At the same time they must turn under all of the vegetable growth to make humus, to kill weeds and to destroy troublesome insects. Besides these requirements the soil must be pulverized and laid loose to admit both air and moisture. These experiments gradually led up to our present high grade plows of hardened steel and what is known as chilled steel.
Besides the hardness there are different shapes designed for different soils so that a plow to work well on one farm may need to be quite different from a plow to do the best work in another neighborhood. The furrow slice sliding over a perfect moldboard leaves the surface of the upturned ground as even as the bottom of the furrow. By using a modern plow carefully selected to fit the soil, gravel, sandy, stony or muck soils, or silt loams that contain silica, lime, iron and aluminum oxide can be worked with the right plow to do the best work possible if we use the necessary care and judgment in making the selection.
One object of good plowing is to retain moisture in the soil until the growing crop can make good use of it.
The ease with which soils absorb, retain or lose moisture, depends mostly on their texture, humus content, physical condition, and surface slope or artificial drainage. It is to the extent that cultivation can modify these factors that more soil water can be made available to the growing crop. There are loose, open soils through which water percolates as through a sieve, and there are tight, gumbo soils which swell when the surface is moistened and become practically waterproof. Sandy soils take in water more readily than heavier soils, hence less precaution is necessary to prevent run-off.
Among the thousands of plows of many different makes there are plenty of good ones. The first consideration in making a selection is a reliable home dealer who has a good business reputation and a thorough knowledge of local soil from a mechanical standpoint. The next consideration is the service the plow will give in proportion to the price.
DISK HARROW
For preparing land to receive the seed no other implement will equal a double disk. These implements are made in various sizes and weights of frame. For heavy land, where it is necessary to weight the disk down, an extra heavy frame is necessary. It would probably be advisable to get the extra strong frame for any kind of land, because even in light sand there are times when a disk may be used to advantage to kill quackgrass or to chew up sod before plowing. In such cases it is customary to load on a couple of sacks of sand in addition to the weight of the driver. When a disk is carrying 300 or 400 pounds besides its own weight the racking strains which pull from different directions have a tendency to warp or twist a light frame out of shape. To keep a disk cultivator in good working order it is necessary to go over it thoroughly before doing heavy work. Bolts must be kept tight, all braces examined occasionally, and the heavy nuts at the ends of the disk shafts watched. They sometimes loosen and give trouble. The greatest difficulty in running a disk harrow or cultivator is to keep the boxings in good trim. Wooden boxes are provided with the implement. It is a good plan to insist on having a full set of eight extra boxes. These wooden boxes may be made on the farm, but it sometimes is difficult to get the right kind of wood. They should be made of hard maple, bored according to size of shaft, and boiled in a good quality of linseed oil. Iron boxings have never been satisfactory on a disk implement. Wooden ones make enough trouble, but wood has proved better than iron. On most disk cultivators there are oil channels leading to the boxings. These channels are large enough to carry heavy oil. The lighter grades of cylinder oil work the best. It is difficult to cork these oil channels tight enough to keep the sand out. Oil and sand do not work well together in a bearing. The manufacturers of these implements could improve the oiling device by shortening the channel and building a better housing for the oil entrance. It is quite a job to take a disk apart to put in new boxings, but, like all other repair work, the disk should be taken into the shop, thoroughly cleaned, repaired, painted and oiled in the winter time.
Some double disk cultivators have tongues and some are made without. Whether the farmer wants a tongue or not depends a good deal on the land. The only advantage is that a tongue will hold the disk from crowding onto the horses when it is running light along the farm lanes or the sides of the fields with the disks set straight. Horses have been ruined by having the sharp disks run against them when going down hill. Such accidents always are avoidable if a man realizes the danger. Unfortunately, farm implements are often used by men who do very little thinking. A spring disk scraper got twisted on a root and was thrown over the top of one of the disks so it scraped against the back of the disk and continued to make a harsh, scraping noise until the proprietor went to see what was wrong. The man driving the disk said he thought something must be the matter with the cultivator, but he couldn’t tell for the life of him what it was. When farmers are up against such difficulties it is safer to buy a disk with a tongue.
Harrow Cart.—A small two-wheel cart with a spring seat overshadowed with a big umbrella is sometimes called a “dude sulky.” Many sensitive farmers trudge along in the soft ground and dust behind their harrows afraid of such old fogy ridicule. The hardest and most tiresome and disagreeable job at seeding time is following a harrow on foot. Riding a harrow cart in the field is conserving energy that may be applied to better purposes after the day’s work in the field is finished.