[AT] been collecting a long time

[Cecil R Bearden]

My Dad would never bury anything that would not rot, he would just stack 
it higher in the fencerow to save pasture space.   I am fortunate that 
he instilled the same belief in me.  However, the time has come when I 
must start cleaning up and save the few real good projects.

Cecil in OKla




On 8/24/2014 8:02 PM, jtchall at nc.rr.com wrote:
> 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
> _______________________________________________
> AT mailing list
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>
> _______________________________________________
> AT mailing list
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> AT mailing list
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at