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WINTER WORK fo
FARM TRACTORS
THE immense value of the farm tractor in completing the autumn ploughing at a sufficiently rapid rate to enable seeding to be carried out in good time is now so generally recognized that there is little need for stressing the point. One may, perhaps, emphasize that this timely seeding, effected by the aid of the tractor, often ensures a good crop, when late seeding means a total failure, and draw attention to the exceptional force of this remark, in view of the fact that most land this autumn has been unworkable by animal power by reason of the effects of the long-continued drought.
Even experienced tractor users have a general feeling that, when the autumn ploughing and seeding is finished, there is nothing more for the tractor to do until the spring rush begins. So far as work on good plough 1182 land of a heavy nature is concerned, there is every reason to have all operations completed before the land becomes really wet. On lighter soils, however, where beet and other root crops are on the ground late, ploughing, after clearance, will normally continue through December and January. There is, however, on most farms, a great deal of important work on every kind of land which can be done by the tractor, when the normal arable jobs have all been finished.
One operation to which increasing attention is being paid is subsoiling. It is a fact that cropping on land which has a hard pan below the surface is always unsatisfactory. Such pans occur on most farms where the limited strength of horse teams has, for many years, determined the maximum depth of ploughing.
The constant passage of the horsed plough at the same depth has formed a hard layer, which prevents the free passage of roots, water and air to the subsoil, and thereby produces many evils. These include surface flooding, rapid drying out in droughts, stunted crops—even to completely barren conditions—and fa nging -in sugar-beet.
A high-powered tractor is essential properly to deal with such conditions, and it is important to select an implement which will penetrate and break up the subsoil pan without bringing any of the subsoil to the surface. Most far-seeing agriculturists favour the combined plough and subsoiler for this work, and specially heavy ploughs are now available.
Behind each plough 'body is placed a stout subsoil tine, which can be set to penetrate below the bottom of the furrow. Thus, the surface is ploughed normally and the subsoil broken up underneath, without being mixed with the top soil. This. method should be contrasted with systems involving the mixing of the subsoil and top soil, a process which is definitely deleterious, the subsoil, when brought to the surface, often being poisonous to plant life.
By ploughing and subsoiling in one operation, we open up a passage for air and moisture to get down below the old pin, so that the subsoil becomes gradually oxidized in situ and thus rendered suitable for plant growth, without affecting the top soil. A usual total depth of working is 12-16 ins., hut the nature of the land must be carefully studied. A three-bottom plough will call for the most powerful tractors available, as the draught may be about 2,000 lb. per furrow.
Where .arable land has been allowed to go derelict and is covered at this season with a thick growth of rubbish, there is no reason why cleaning operations should not be started at once, so as to enlist the help of winter frosts in killing the rubbish. Such ground, again, calls for a fairly high-powered tractor, as the presence of much root growth often raises considerably the draught of implements.
I would rarely advise using an ordinary plough in the circumstances described, and would prefer to employ a tractor broadshare. This implement is not so well known as it should be, because its home is rather localized in Kent. It has a frame similar to that of an ordinary cultivator, but carries three very heavy bodies with steel shares 18 ins, wide, which are mounted on the front of ridging bodies, located at 18-in. centres.
The whole of the ground is, as a rule, cut for a width of 4 ft. 0 ins, at a depth of 4-5 ins., the top layer, with the roots of couch and other weeds, being thrown into ridges, where they are freely exposed to frost.
At a later period in the winter, the land may be crossed, working another 2 ins, deeper and, in the
spring, when the rubbish
has decayed and should be incapable of further growth, the whole may be ploughed preparatory to seeding. It is frequently possible by such methods to clear the ground of rubbish, without incurring the loss of time for a summer fallow, that is otherwise unavoidable. Arable land is, of course, not the only place where weeds may get the upper hand, for we have hundreds of thousands of acres of grassland spoiled by the presence of weed grasses, mosses and other rubbish. All this could be put in order, largely by suitable tractor work in the winter months.
Neglected pastures need to be thoroughly cultivated and the rubbish torn out before it is worth while applying lime or manures. The most popular&actor tool for the work is the pitch-pole harrow, •a species of light cultivator with double-ended tines which can be tripped when clogged with grass and thus are self-cleaning.
It will be realized that the accumulated dead grass of many seasons, together with MOSS, produces a carpet on the surface of the ground which prevents air from penetrating the soil and which holds water on the top, like a sponge. Cutting through this mass and tearing it out is no light work, but with the right-sized pitchpole harrow, even the light tractor can do well.
Double working is necessary and it may be advisable to run several times over particularly bad ground. The operations are, however, well repaid, for, as a result of this treatment, backed up by suitable manuring, the value of poor pasture is frequently raised by an appre ciable sum of money.
Along with cleaning up neglected grass, there are frequent occasions when improvement can be effected by installing proper drainage systems, and the tractor can be employed to advantage in mole draining and trench excavating. Light tractors equipped with winches are now widely employed for mole draining, whilst powerful crawler machines may do the work by 'direct traction.
Trench opening is usually a winch job if performed with a trenching plough. It is essential in mole draining to make sure that the land is really suitable and in a sufficiently wet state when tackled.
As a final suggestion which ties up closely with drainage work, I would point out the value of tractor tackle in clearing up old fallen timber, which is so often to be seen blocking up ditches and drain outlets. With a winch or winding drum, these can be hauled out and, with a saw-bench driven from the belt pulley, they can be cut up for disposal as firewood, fence posts and other purposes.
The winter may, therefore, be looked upon as cleaning-up time for the tractors and, in view of the vast extent of land which is losing money on account of its neglected condition, there seems no excuse for any tractor to stand idle in December and January.