[AT] Strange modification

mpnc282 at juno.com mpnc282 at juno.com
Wed May 12 13:39:20 PDT 2010


Hi Charlie,
Interesting story, you made me dig into the old Funk and Wagnall though to see what in the heck a pocosin was. Mike M


---------- Original Message ----------
From: "charliehill" <charliehill at embarqmail.com>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Subject: Re: [AT] Strange modification
Date: Wed, 12 May 2010 11:29:43 -0400

A motor grader is about the strongest pulling machine you'll run up with. 
Back in the late 70's a fellow named Malcolm McClain sold out his Charlotte 
NC based trucking business and dumped a lot of the cash into a huge farm in 
N/E NC.  Well actually it was a pocosin.  He cleared it and began making it 
into farm land.  The soil was so acid that they were putting 10 or 12 tons 
of lime to the acre on cutover and root raked land just to get the roots to 
rot.  I was one of the truckers that hauled the lime to the place.

The roads on the place were nothing but 2 deep canals dug about 50 or more 
feet apart with all of the dirt piled in the middle and graded out into a 
roadway.  The canals were deep and wide enough to bury a tractor trailer in. 
It wasn't unusual to get stuck with a loaded tractor-trailer dump right in 
the middle of the main field roads and getting stuck on the side roads was 
almost a daily occurance.  (Now I'm getting to the part about the motor 
grader if anyone is still reading).

They had a couple of special Cat graders spread out over the 100,000 acre 
tract.  They would send them to the areas where we were hauling lime.  They 
had been fitted with rear wheels that were over twice as wide and not much 
over half as tall as normal grader wheels.  That is what pulled us out most 
of the time and most of the time they did a fine job and they were fast. 
They'd pull a group of us through a tough spot in the road.  Then as a group 
we'd go another couple of miles and get stuck again.  By the time we got the 
road blocked up good the grader would catch up with us and pull us all out 
again.

Most of the time that worked.  When we really got stuck bad, usually while 
we were trying to dump, they would send D-8 Cats to pull us out.  That  is 
assuming we were able to dump first.  If not the lime had to be shoveled out 
of the dump bed.  Otherwise the dozer would pull the tractor and trailer out 
but leave the trailer axles or part of them in the bog.   Occasionally one 
side of the trailer wheels would sink while we were dumping.  That would 
turn the trailer over and since most of us ran aluminum trailers the were 
usually totaled or darn near it.  Most of us pulled 22' Ravens trailers. 
Anything longer was nearly impossible to dump in the field without turning 
over.

I think they finally got about 35 or 40 thousand acres into farmable 
condition.  The place was called First Colony Farm and it stretched over 
part of 4 counties between Hwys.  US 64, NC 32 and US 264, east and south of 
Plymouth NC.  The farm tracts were eventually sold off to various farmers 
and investors.  There were probably 25 or more trucks hauling lime from as 
far as 150 miles away, 6 and sometimes 7 days a week for a couple of years. 
We were running from 4 am until 8 or 9 at night everyday.  The limiting 
factor was getting the lime mine operators to stay open for us after hours.

Charlie Hill


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Indiana Robinson" <robinson46176 at gmail.com>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2010 10:45 AM
Subject: Re: [AT] Strange modification


>I read an article a few years ago where a fellow here in the states
> had bought a large conventional road grader (like this)
> http://www.doublesinc.com/images/roadGrader.jpg
> to farm with. His main use though was to remove the blade and mount
> his big tool bar planter in the center. He could plant and watch the
> marker mark and watch all of the units at the same time. He was quite
> pleased with it.
> -
> I have long wished for a grader like one of the small Allis units or a
> Huber Maintainer just to keep ditches and field edges maintained. A 3
> point blade just doesn't do as well especially in old sod. Now that
> the fellow that farms my grain land is using mostly no-till the field
> edges are not as much of a problem to mow.
> -- 
>
>
> Be tolerant of almost everything but intolerance...
>
> Francis Robinson
> aka "farmer"
> Central Indiana USA
> robinson46176 at gmail.com
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