[AT] been collecting a long time

[jtchall at nc.rr.com]

Charlie, you and everyone else scrapped old iron way back when. Glad you 
did, or it would be so common none of us would get the thrill of hunting it 
down. The farm beside us used to be a massive dairy, over 20 guys on payroll 
year round. Back in the 80's I talked to an old guy that retired form there 
trying to see if he remembered any old equipment sitting in fencerows or 
abandoned sheds. The farm had a D4 Cat dozer. He said he personally buried 2 
hit and miss engines with it in the farm dump. I've got a 1914 IH 4hp 
throttle and governor engine that was rescued from a dozer pile in the 70's. 
We've got a very early wooden husker shredder made by IH just after their 
formation--it was originally a Deering machine. My guess is it is 1910 or 
earlier---design dates to the 1880's or 90's under the Rosenthal patents. 
Anyway, my grandmother told my dad and uncle that it was taking up shed 
space so they needed to pull it out from the shed and stick a match to it to 
get rid of it. I'm VERY glad those boys didn't listen. Considering she was 
the boss and they worked for her (both were grown men) it was a pretty bold 
move on there part.

John


-----Original Message----- 
From: charlie hill
Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2014 10:57 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] been collecting a long time

John,   I regret now that in the late 70's while having a guy with a dozer
clean up
a piece of land that had grown up in bushes I had him dig a hole, crush and
bury
one of those cultivators.  I bet it was identical or nearly so to the one
you have.
He pushed that and some other horse drawn stuff in the hole, drove the dozer
over it
and covered it up.  At the time it was just junk and a $.01 per pound not
even worth
the effort to take it to the salvage yard.  Back then everyone was buying
new, bigger and
better and we were just happy not to have to use such "junk" anymore.

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: jtchall at nc.rr.com
Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2014 8:17 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: [AT] been collecting a long time

It occurred to me this week just how long we’ve been collecting old iron, 30
years give or take a year. Started when I was in 7th or 8th grade. When we
started it was small items like 2 man chainsaws, Briggs engines from the 40’s
and 50’s, and horse drawn equipment---at the time these items were really
cheap or free. We quickly progressed to tractors and belt powered machinery.

One of the earliest items we rescued from a fencerow was a horse drawn
riding cultivator. It was all there, just frozen with rust and the wheels
were bent where someone had nudged it sideways with a scrape blade to push
it out of the way. The day we brought it home was about 30 degrees. I drove
one of the 4020’s with a boom pole to go get it (and a stalk cutter) while
dad drove one of the grain trucks. If you’re trying to picture the boom pole
it is basically the same thing as the little ones you can buy for utility
tractors except this one is heavy enough to lift the front end of the the
10,000lb tractor it is hooked to off the ground. We’ve also got a hydraulic
center link for it. Anyway we got it home, heated, hammered, and oiled until
it was operational. We made a tongue for it that required a little ingenuity
and a broken shank off of a chisel plow. We would use it on occasion to plow
the garden. We even raised a few rows of snap beans one year using it and a
10-20 McCormick on steel. I still haven’t figured out how dad laid the rows
off straight given the slop in the steering on that tractor. We continued
using it for close to 10 years and then retired it again after we quit
raising so much garden. It was towed to the back of the farm and backed up
under some trees where it rested for the next 20 years.

This past week I decided it would be handy to have up here at my house. The
wildlife pressure is so great here everyone has to fence in their garden
with 6-8 ft fencing. I’m not going to do that so I’ll just plant what the
critters won’t eat, squash, zucchini, and sweet corn (I forgot, the
squirrels cleaned me out on that as well). I borrowed my cousins tractor
with cultivators and laid off a couple rows for some late squash. It’s not
worth the effort for us to keep cultivators on a tractor any more. I
remembered how handy this horse drawn cultivator was so it was time to
rescue it again. Same tractor, same boom pole, (same guy driving the
tractor) 30 years later, we retrieved it from the weeds and briars again.
Back to the same shop. This time it only took a couple evenings to get it
running. Had to replace the wooden tongue, and free up one major part with
the torch (same as 30 years ago) and we were back in business. Plowed my
garden Fri. night and it did an outstanding job. I’ll put some fertilizer
around it this week and try to plow it one more time. Should have squash and
zucchini until frost.

It just occurred to me the incentive to get this cultivator operational 30
years ago. Back then both of our Super A’s spent most of the spring and
summer at the other farm 2 miles away. The only time they came home was for
plowing gardening. If you wanted to plow garden you had to go get one. And
once tobacco had been laid by, you’d have to put the cultivators on once you
got here, plow the garden, take the cultivators off, and get the tractor
back to the other farm, generally all in the same evening.

Maybe I can find a shed to keep it under for the next 30 years. Until next
week, its sitting in the corner of my yard, backed up under a tree. Don’t
worry, my better half won’t let it sit there long.

John Hall
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