Rotary Hoe?

This deal has two gangs and has rotary spikes about 8-10 inches apart about 10 to the gang. Spikes appear to be about 8 inches long. It looks to be 6-7 feet wide. This appears to be a pretty old piece of equipment. It looks to be a drag style piece.

What were the uses of and what is the true name of? Were they any good?

He said that back when they buried clay tiles for drainage, they would dig most of the trenches by hand and lay the tiles, drinkin beer while working, and would throw the empties in the trenches.

After the trenches were covered, and the ground was plowed, fitted, and planted (along with winter freeze/thaw) the beer cans would be nearer to the top than they were last year. After the corn began to sprout, he would rotary hoe, and the cans would stick in the tines on the wheel, and take out corn when the wheel got hung up.

Needless to say, he decided there would be no more beer drank on the farm, but that only lasted a litle while... now the rotary hoe sits back in his tree line ( or it's in the local scrap yard)

Hope you enjoyed the story

Brad

I remember this well, because before we learned to rotary hoe, we had to hoe the beans by hand. I suppose chemicals have made the rotary hoe obsolete, but at the time I considered it to be a miracle machine!

Rotary hoes were pretty easy pulling, and speed was somewhat of a key to getting them to work correctly. For an old Minneapolis Moline GTB you would use 4th gear, which was about the only thing you ever used it for. Other than moving from one location to another.

The 3-point new style is still popular. The style you found was prone to plugging in trash, and not as handy.

As stated, moving fast is the key - most have a shield on them to protect the driver/ cab glass from rocks that are flung, as you motivate through the field!

They are also used to break the crust on bean fields in clay soil - under the wrong rainfall condition, the top inch of clay soil can harden up like concrete, and the beans can't sprout through it.

--->Paul