[AT] Plows

[Chuck Bealke]

As I remember, AC moldboard plows were the hard pullers in our area.  Used an old rope trip one behind an equally old and reliable WC.  As we have discussed before here, a major concern in plow choice back then was well how it plowed tall weeds and crop under.  The JD Hi-Speed plows of the 50’s (the moldboard had kind of a twist straight back) worked best for fields with nothing taller than wheat stubble to turn under. If you had one of those mythical power-to-spare tractors and weedless fields of the sales brochures, these plows did speed right along smartly without throwing dirt. They also speeded sales of weed hooks, Yetter disc shaped coulters, moldboard pads, chains, etc. to help (supposedly) give the Hi-speed some covering power.  But our Hi-Speed was resistant to much help from such devices.  Did like their then new “throw away” shares. These ended up killing some of the last sustaining work of the few remaining blacksmiths in the area - sharpening plow shares.  Their shops were fun places to go.  Coal burning smells, dirt and heavy iron from the past were all around, and I particularly liked to watch the heating and hand-hammer shaping of glowing iron.  

Chuck Bealke
Dallas