[AT] Cultivating potatoes

[Al Jones]

Rolling cultivators are among my favorite tillage tools.  With tobacco
fading out, they're getting cheap as dirt around here.   I have fond
memories of Granddaddy of a set of them on the front of a Farmall 230 in
soybeans and young corn.

The 'layby sweeps' or 'buzzard wings' are usually known as "tobacco
plows" around here. They work really good on a crop on a raised bed, and
will roll the dirt up over the entire bed, and do it gently so you don't
cover up the crop (as easily).  

Al

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of charlie hill
Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2006 4:29 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Cultivating potatoes

When I went from one row plows on an Allis D-14 to 2 rows with a rolling

cultivator behind a Massey Furgeson 30 ( my uncle's tractor) it was like

getting out of a shool bus and getting in a sports car.

Charlie


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Seith" <seithr at denison.edu>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group"
<at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2006 11:57 AM
Subject: [AT] Cultivating potatoes


> All this discussion about different types of cultivators has reminded
me 
> how fussy we were about cultivating potatoes back home. Hilling
potatoes 
> was certainly one operation, but by no means the only one. Lots of
other 
> work was done throughout the season.
>
> We had a tiny homemade rotary cultivator that fit in the front gangs
of 
> the Farmall A. It had only three spiked wheels that sort of resembled 
> small versions of these:
>
> http://www.ent.iastate.edu/Imagegal/misc/rotaryhoe.html
>
> It was used to break the crust if you got heavy rains after planting
and 
> before emergence. Ran it right down the middle of the row, obviously
held 
> so as to go rather shallow. Go too deep, and you'd throw the potatoes 
> right out of the ground.
>
> After emergence, there was a "potato weeder" that started life as a
piece 
> of horse-drawn equipment but eventually moved over to a three-point
hitch 
> mount. Again, you had to be careful using it, but it would tease out a
lot 
> of weeds.
>
> Most actual hilling was done with disk blades mounted in the front 
> cultivator gangs. But later in the season, just before the vines died
down 
> and made further cultivating impossible, we ran through the fields one

> last time with only rear cultivators mounted. These looked like
miniature 
> middlebuster plows -- maybe 10 inches wide -- and would make the old 
> Farmall boil on a hot day. But they threw a lot of sandy loam around!
>
> Best,
> Bob Seith
> 1953 Farmall Cub
>
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> Remembering Our Friend Cecil Monson 11-4-2005
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>
>
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