[AT] now disc brakes, plowing

[Herb Metz]

Charlies description is the way the ground should be plowed (throwing the 
dirt to the inside) every other year. To keep the ground level in the middle 
of the field and around the outside edges, the dirt should be thrown to the 
outside every other year. Starting at the outside, and going around and 
around in a CCW direction until winding up in the center of the field.  This 
alternating provides the ideal in leveling.
However in most of the midwest that I was familar with the CCW direction 
often dominated because it was considerably faster.  The buildup of soil 
around the edges of some fields became evident.  One can imagine the ravine 
that must have developed in the middle of those fields. Less than 10% of 
plows were rollover where the farmer could start at one side of the field 
and go back and forth until completing at the far side of the field.
Alternate methods such as multi-shank all purpose plows and no-till have 
certainly had their affects on the above situations.
Probably should not mention this but under good plowing conditions (and WFE 
tractors), one could sorta doze off and if he did not awaken before the turn 
he would awaken when the tractor front wheels hit the uneven dirt at a 
corner.  Quickly turn,  pull plow out of ground, make complete circle, 
reposition, drop plow back into the ground, and back to plowing.  Don't do 
this close to the road where passersby could see your tracks, and certainly 
don't do this when a passerby occurs.
Unfortunately the passerby situation has dropped to around 1/6 or 1/8 of 
when I was on the farm (central KS).
Herb

-----Original Message----- 
From: charlie hill
Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2012 7:49 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Super Ms, Ralph Video. disc brakes etc.)

Correct Mike,  it wasn't just a tobacco farming procedure, it was just the
way
it was done here in tobacco country.  Perhaps it was done that way
everywhere
but I only know what I grew up doing.    There were a couple of times when I
was actually able to work my "land" into a circle and then just go round and
round
but it takes a pretty big field and a lot of messing around early on to do
that.

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: Mike Sloane
Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2012 6:29 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Super Ms, Ralph Video. disc brakes etc.)

Your story is pretty much what I have heard from others and reading
various books on the subject. It isn't just a tobacco crop procedure.
And it is one of the things that drove owners of Ford 9N tractors crazy
- Ford put the left brake pedal on the same side as the clutch. My 2N
has a hand lever on the left brake pedal, so the operator could operate
the left brake independently of the clutch operation. It took Ford 10
years to move the left brake pedal over to the same side as the right
brake pedal.
<http://public.fotki.com/mikesloane/1946_ford_2n/2n_brake1.html>

To keep the thread on the subject, the nature of band brakes is that
they hardly work at all in reverse, while disk brakes work the same
going forward of back. Drum brakes (again, as in the Ford) work mostly
the same going forward or backward).

Mike

On 12/30/2012 6:02 PM, charlie hill wrote:
> Ron, I haven't followed this thread all the way through but around here
> you
> could always tell a tractor that had
> been used to plow because the left hand brake was worn out.  Here's why.
> We
> would lay out our "land"
> by starting in the middle of the field and plowing the first pass for
> maybe
> 100 feet (depending on the size of the field).
> We would turn around and make the second pass going the other way throwing
> dirt on top of the first pass with the
> furrows on the outside.  We would repeat this until we had plowed roughly
> a
> square, in this case 100' x 100'.   Then we would start
> plowing across the end, again with the furrow out, dirt thrown on the
> plowed
> ground.  At the end of that pass we would make
> a 270 deg left hand turn, hard on the left brake, turning out away from
> the
> plowed ground, around and back into the side furrow.
> Then we would go down that side and across the other end making the same
> 270
> deg turn at each corner.  That would repeat
> until the field was finished.  The idea was to lay the "land" out to match
> the shape of the field.  In my example it would have
> needed to be a square field.  The result was that the tractor got run all
> day long, making hard left turns at each corner with the
> right brake never being used.   When the field was finished there would be
> a
> furrow all the way around the outside of the field.
>
> Not sure if that is what is being discussed here but that is why plow
> tractors in NC tobacco country had worn out left brakes.
>
> Charlie
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