Farm Mechanics: Machinery and Its Use to Save Hand Labor on the Farm.Shearer, Herbert A.
Science
Farm Mechanics: Machinery and Its Use to Save Hand Labor on the Farm.
Shearer, Herbert A.
Agricultural machinery
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.
KNIFE-EDGE PULVERIZERS
A knife-edge weeder makes the best dust mulch pulverizer for orchard
work or when preparing a seed-bed for grain. These implements are sold
under different names. It requires a stretch of imagination to attach
the word "harrow" to these knife-edge weeders. There is a central bar
which is usually a hardwood plank. The knives are bolted to the
underside of the plank and sloped backward and outward from the center
to the right and left, so that the knife-edges stand at an angle of
about 45° to the line of draught. This angle is just about sufficient to
let tough weeds slip off the edges instead of dragging along. If the
knives are sharp, they will cut tender weeds, but the tough ones must be
disposed of to prevent choking. The proper use of the knife-edge weeder
prevents weeds from growing, but in farm practice, sometimes rainy
weather prevents the use of such a tool until the weeds are well
established. As a moisture retainer, these knife-edge weeders are
superior to almost any other implement. They are made in widths of from
eight to twenty feet. The wide ones are jointed in the middle to fit
uneven ground.
CLOD CRUSHER
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account