Plowing a Straight Furrow
My Dad learned to plow as a kid from my Grandfather using a team of horses before the advent of tractors. Read this previous blog post for more about those times. My Grandfather always prided himself on being able to plow a very straight furrow even though he was born with only one hand. He passed those skills onto my Dad, who carried over that ability once he acquired his first tractor (shown below) in the ’30’s. In fact, in those days Dad even participated in plowing competitions, where a straight furrow was a must.
During the spring of my Junior year in high school, I had the opportunity to also learn the skill, although I never mastered it like my Dad or Grandfather. As described in last week’s blog a neighboring farmer, Jim, had bought a second farm of 160 acres near our farm, so I helped him prepare the land for crops that spring.
Since Jim did not plan to raise livestock on his new farm, he decided to first tear out all the fences on the property so the farm became one huge field about a half mile square as shown in the current aerial photo above, with a house and barn plus several parcels of woods tucked in the corners. After we removed the fence rows, it was my job to plow the gigantic field and prep it for planting corn and beans. I had never plowed such a long strip before, so sought Dad's advice. He said to find an appropriate landmark on the horizon, aim the centerline of the tractor at the target, start plowing, using your knees as well as your hands to hold the steering wheel rock steady on the target, and most importantly for only the first furrow, never look back to see if the furrow is straight or the plow is functioning properly, as that action tends to pull the steering wheel off line. I suppose with today’s laser guided farm equipment, such skills are now obsolete.
Well Dad’s advice worked, sort of. The first furrow was straight enough but tended to tail off at the end as my knees and hands got very tired and must have wobbled a little. Also, the furrow deviated slightly whenever I had to plow through an old fence line. Regardless, Jim commended me on the straightness of the furrow, which made my day, as well as my Dad’s when I told him. With that first furrow in place, then the monotonous and time consuming job of plowing, discing, harrowing and cultipacking the acreage was required to prepare the soil properly.
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| Disc, Harrow and Cultipacker |
Planting the corn and beans came next, which Jim performed himself as I was making one last pass over the acreage ahead of the planter with the harrow and cultipacker to break up any remaining clods of dirt. And when it came time to load up the planter with more seed and fertilizer, I'd assist Jim. Our goal was to get the corn planted before mid-May and the beans by Memorial Day, which we just made even though rains interrupted our work several days. Whenever it rained, I was directed to head to the hog stable on his other farm and load manure into a spreader, a job I detested for obvious reasons. So did Jim; that’s why I got the assignment!
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| Corn Planter and Manure Spreader |
This first job provided many lessons learned while also putting money in my pocket; for that I’m grateful to Jim, Dad and Grandpa.
