[AT] Strange modification

charliehill charliehill at embarqmail.com
Wed May 12 14:04:45 PDT 2010 

Mike,  while I've read the dictionary definition, I don't remember what it 
says.  I just know what folks call a place like that.  It's basically, low, 
flat, wet land with a lot of scrub hardwood trees and a fair amount of fair 
to good pine timber.  The land has a lot of peat and organic matter and it 
is difficult to work even in dry conditions.

Charlie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <mpnc282 at juno.com>
To: <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2010 4:39 PM
Subject: Re: [AT] Strange modification


> 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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