[AT] Old Co-op from my album

[Ralph Goff]

Greg Hass wrote:
> 
> Does anyone use disk tillers anymore? What were they used for? I always 
> thought they were a dryland farming type of machinery used to stop wind 
> erosion. Someone also told me they were used in shallow soils as the 
> underlying rock would destroy a regular plow. I know little about them. 
> The guy that used to own this farm had  one; it had five or six blades 
> as I remember. I was very young at the time, but have since hear stories 
> about it. They are not a machine common to this area; I have seen only 
> one other. Anyway, this guy read a book called " Plowman's Folly" and 
> bought into it's ideas 100%.

Greg,
disk tillers (or tillers as they were known here) were very popular at 
the time this photo was taken. They were for working summerfallow which 
pretty well everybody had about 50% of their land in at that time. 
Seeding attachments were available and a lot of these tillers were used 
to plant crops. Including on this farm, my Dad used a Cockshutt 8 foot 
tiller for year as a dual purpose planter and summerfallow machine. It 
was a bit of a compromise though. Seeding depth was very hard to 
regulate. Penetration in hard stubble summerfallow was marginal at times 
and he often had to work the field first with "spikes" on the deep 
tillage. But at least the tiller would knock down the stubble and 
overgrown weeds where a shank type implement would plug up in the trash 
and cause a lot of frustration.
  Diskers were a big improvement on the tillers mainly in flexibility. 
The old tillers had very little flexibility but diskers had spring 
loaded gangs which followed the contours of the field much better. Press 
drills were even better for seeding but required pre-tillage whereas the 
disker could be a once over machine, just a harrowing to finish the 
field off.
Disker seeding really dropped off sometime about the seventies and press 
drills took over only to be pushed aside by air seeders a few years 
later. Now air seeders are being replaced by the improved "air drills". 
Always something new coming along.
Plowman's Folly was quite a book. I have it though its a good many years 
since I read it. Your synopsis of the plot sounds very familiar though.

Ralph in Sask.
>