Anyone ever build/use whats called a mumbler

Farmallb

Well-known Member
its several 2X4sX? laid sideways from a tractor, and partially lapped over and bolted say 2in from the end side of the boards. Its purpose is to smooth out the dirt in fields after plowing/discing.. They made them from the 1880s up till say the 1950s.
 
We call em 'lap drags'. I have an old one out back. It acctually does a pretty good job of crushing clods.
 
My dad built more than one of those in New Zealand in the 1940s and 50s and we called them a 'clodcrusher'. They did a great job of both breaking up clods of hard soil and levelling uneven ground, as the front was built up about 18 inches. The worn out cutting edge of grader blades was bolted to the lower leading edge and did an impressive job of peeling off mounds and filling holes. This action worked much better if some weight was added to the clodcrusher, and especially so if that weight was in the form of a boy who could stand at the front to make it bite in then take a step back and deposit mounded up spoil in the holes -- some job that was!
 
Just called a drag and if ground was a bit damp they would not work, just build up wet dirt on bottom side. Were gotten rid of back when I was a kid and am now 73. When was able to get enough spike tooth harrows they were burnt.
 
In our dry climate,"dirt buildup" wasn't an issue.In fact,just about every farm here had one till 'modern' machinery came along.They would leave the ground smoother and finer than just about anything.
 
Reminds me when I was a kid, we had no way to deal with snow. Dad would nail together 2-3 2X12's to pull around the yard to pack down the snow to make it easier for the horses to haul sleds of hay to the cattle. He would get all 4 of us kids (A 5th kid came later) to stand on the planks to add weight for packing the snow. It was a struggle to keep our balance riding the planks over snow drifts.

He never used planks to brake up clod though. Sometimes he took the planks apart during the summer to use for some other purpose so when winter came he bought new planks.
 
(quoted from post at 19:06:25 01/14/17) Dad called ours a board drag. Only got used every now and then.
Anyone got any pictures? I'd like to build one. Harrows are hard to find in my area.
 
Where are you at that harrows are hard to find? That thing would not be hard to make. Just get you some planks the length of the width you want to male it. Use nothing less than 8" up to twelve inch. Just overlap each one by 4" and nail, screw or bolt the planks together. Then just drill a bolt hole in front edge to fasten a chain on. If you try to pull backwards it will just bury itself instead of sliding on top of ground.
 

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