[AT] Re: Potato Digger comments

[Indiana Robinson]

On 7 Feb 2006 at 18:30, Greg Hass wrote:

> In our particular area, many people use old, horsedrawn potato diggers as 
> lawn ornaments.  I still see many of them sitting in fence rows.  I have a 
> horsedrawn potato digger which I bought from a neighbor for $50.  I tried 
> to use it to dig my potatoes for several years (coverted to 
> tractor-pulled).  My garden, which is located in a old 1-acre barnyard, has 
> very mushy soil which would not go through the chain very well and would 
> keep plugging.  So... last year I was able to locate a 1-row PTO-driven 
> digger at an auction that had been used for a small truck farm.  It sure 
> works great!  Ironically, despite all of the old horsedrawn digegrs around, 
> I know of only one person in the whole county who now grows potatoes on the 
> commercial level.  However, 60 miles to the southwest of us around the 
> bottom of Saginaw Bay, potatoes are grown by the hundreds of acres.
> 
> Greg Hass
> Bad Axe
> (From Michigan's Thumb)



	One of the things that struck us most on our recent trek across OH,
 NY, MA, CT and PA and back home was the huge number of small farms 
with several silos (some not very old) and cattle feeding setups but no cattle.
 They appeared 
to have been mostly dairy farms. Of course the cattle have almost disappeared
 from here too but here on the edge of the prairie we have pretty deep
 productive soils and corn, soybeans and wheat took their place. The farms 
continue as farms. Many of those we saw in the north east looked like 
no one was doing anything with them. As someone that grew up on the edge 
of the prairie I just can't imagine trying to scratch out a living in all those rocks 
without some kind of livestock. Those folks need to find a good market for rocks...   :-)
	Steve mentioned building 5" of top soil... Here we tend to have maybe 
8" to 16" of good topsoil, except on some hill tops where it has eroded off. The 
subsoil on this farm generally runs down a good 10' to 30' before it starts getting
 to fractured limestone. If well fertilized that subsoil will produce pretty well. A good 
crop of earthworms will keep the top 3' to 4' feet somewhat opened up if given
 a chance.
 We do have the odd patch of igneous rocks in this area, rather carelessly left
 scattered by the glaciers. I have usually picked up maybe a dozen football
 sized rocks a year off of this 105 acres. We did have one rock the size of a car
 but that was dynamited and buried many years ago.
	This area does have a bad infestation of outcroppings called houses.   :-)
	The other thing that we were struck with was how small almost all of the 
trees were after we got past Ohio. Southern Indiana is home to the Hoosier 
National Forest which is not that old as a national forest and the area has been 
logged in the past as has much of KY and TN but the forest trees are still 
generally much larger. I can only assume due to the deeper soils and warmer 
climate.
	Almost all of Indiana was once forested even most of the large prairie areas.
There is a  state park in western Indiana called "The Shades" which is 
shortened from "The Shades of Death". I don't recall the original indian name
 that it came from. In that small part of the state the forest
 trees were so huge and so dense that little light reached the forest floor. It was
 told that it was usually pretty dark even at high noon and at night passage was
 almost impossible. At one time almost all of the state was logged bare.
 One of my great grandfather's 
was one of those lumbermen. An old family friend that was 88 when he died about
40 years ago told me that when he came to east central Indiana as a very young man 
that there were no trees left, not even along the rivers. Today most river-sides
 are wooded again. Just to be a little on topic... He was the original purchaser 
of my 1946 Allis C. 
	


--
"farmer"

I try to take one day at a time but sometimes several days attack
me at once.   :-) 


Francis Robinson
Central Indiana, USA
robinson at svs.net