[AT] Disk Plow or One-Way Plow

Sat Sep 6 10:46:21 PDT 2014

Not boring me Cecil.   I wish I could see the land and help you work on it.
I love doing dirt work.   I love the sound of a tractor engine under heavy
load successfully pulling a plow or disc or what ever.  I'm particularly 
fond
of chisel plows (I know that term varies by region.  The ones I'm talking 
about
take about 10 hp per tine plus an extra 10 in sandy or loamy dirt.  In clay
you either have to cut back on tines or add HP).  If you pull those chisel
plows right your speed is high enough to make them shake or vibrate in
sort of a twisting motion. That really does a good job of busting up the
hard pan.

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: Cecil R Bearden
Sent: Saturday, September 06, 2014 1:27 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Disk Plow or One-Way Plow

I posted a note to those last night, but I was reading it on another
email address that I have my messages forwarded to.  ATIS does not
recognize that address.  I posted it a minute ago.

Right now it is raining, and it rained off & on all last night.  It
looks like we may have received nearly an inch of rain.  It was forecast
to receive about .25 inch....!!!

  This patch of ground I have is the near the highest point of the
county.  It is at the interface of what was the ocean floor and the
beach of the Permian sea many years before we were born.  The land is a
tight red clay, overlaying a red shale.  If you go 1/2 mile south, you
get into some sandy soil.  Another 2 miles south it is really good
land.  Clay soil, but it has some organic matter.    This 1/4 was
homesteaded by a family who made the run in 1889.  In 1892 they sold the
place and moved into town and started teaching school.  So much for
farming.  I definitely need to deep subsoil this land to get some
moisture into the root zone.  The rains we receive now are mostly
monsoon type that run off if you don't have a means to make the water go
down.  Usually the ground cracks so wide & deep that the rainwater will
run down.  I have had cracks so wide that sheep would get their foot
stuck in them.  I stuck a tape measure over 2 ft in one once.

I do consulting engineering  for a concrete & foundation raising
company.   Since time began here, the convention was to dig a 12 x 18
trench for a house footing.  Then either stem walls and slab or slab on
grade (ground).   The footing contractor would put a "2in sand cushion"
under the footing thinking it would keep the footing from cracking.
When we get these drought conditions as we do every summer, the ground
cracks as deep or below the footing.  The monsoon rains wash the sand
into the cracks and the foundation then falls.  I built my house in 1985
and did the same thing.  It has settled and cracked.  I built a 30X60
slab and steel building without any sand cushion, and it has not
settled. My last 40 x 100 bldg was built with 4 ft piers on 6 ft centers
under the footing and the slab...

I discussed this yesterday morning with an old timer who has farmed over
60 years about 40 miles west of here.  He owns several sections now and
has all types of soil.   His recommendation was to rip it with the Big
Ox then disc, sow it and pray for rain.  He said that this is an acid
soil here, and the drilling fluids will raise the PH enough to really
make a good crop next year.  With the rain we have just received, I am
going to try to get some tires on the White and fix the bearing and disc
issue with the offset disk and try to sow it.    If I don't get it sowed
by October, I probably will just be wasting seed & fuel....

I have rambled too long.  If this is boring to you all just hit the
Delete key....

Cecil in OKla

On 9/6/2014 10:54 AM, charlie hill wrote:
> Agreed but I think in Cecil's case it's more a matter of needing rain
> and the effects of the drilling fluid spread on the land that is the
> big problem.  Not necessarily the quality of the land.
>
> Charlie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dan Glass
> Sent: Saturday, September 06, 2014 11:30 AM
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> Subject: Re: [AT] Disk Plow or One-Way Plow
>
> You are right.  They will not take bad land and make it good, but it
> seems to take good land and make it better.
> On 9/6/2014 8:56 AM, charlie hill wrote:
>> Dan I suspect that would work but first Cecil has
>> to get the land in good enough shape to even be
>> able to plant the radishes.
>>
>> Charlie
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Dan Glass
>> Sent: Saturday, September 06, 2014 7:37 AM
>> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
>> Subject: Re: [AT] Disk Plow or One-Way Plow
>>
>> I planted diakon radishes last year to break up some soil and it seemed
>> to do great and they were easy to till in in the spring.  The seeds are
>> sold here for deer plots but the deer didn't seem to want to eat them.
>> I gave some to a friends mules and they didn't seem to like them
>> either,  but they did as intended on the soil.
>> On 9/5/2014 9:31 PM, Henry Miller wrote:
>>> The cover crop dealers keep advertising how great some crops are at
>>> breaking up soil compaction. Might be worth a shot this winter. If it
>>> doesn't work you don't lose much, if it helps at all you save fuel.
>>> Probably you can get subsidies from someone to try it as well.
>>>
>>>
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