Jeff Dobberstein, rural Ellendale, followed close behind with a 560 Farmall, which had a 4 - 16's plow behind.
Lee, rural Ellendale, brought his 730 John Deere and 4 -16's bottom plow, and he was followed by Larry Balzer, Bixby, with his "Lazy" Larry 1938 Model A John Deere, with 3 - 14's bottom plow. The last farmer to make his way down the field was Kevin Motl of Blooming Prairie, who drove a 1945 Model A John Deere, with 2 - 16's bottom plow.
They've come a long way since an implement was first used to prepare the earth for planting. Early man used a stick to turn up the soil. The farmer later realized more soil could be broken up with a better tool. He broke off a forked branch from a tree and sharpened one prong of the branch to turn the soil. He then "hitched" his wife to the other end of the fork, and used the main branch as a handle while she pulled this new "implement" over the ground.
In some parts of the world today, implements almost as crude as the tree branch are still used, drawn by human beings, oxen and camels.
The early American plow was a wooden tool that was clumsy to use and required great power to pull, but it did tend to turn the ground over and pulverize it to some extent. In heavy soil, using oxen, they could plow an acre a day.
In 1797, a patent was granted to Charles Newbold, who created a cast-iron plow with a moldboard, share and landside all in one casting. As a result, farmers were able to plow at a greater speed. Blacksmith John Deere is credited with having made the first steel plow in 1837. He used old saws that were capable of turning the tough soil of the prairies. Sticky soil, which clung to cast iron, slid off the shiny steel.
The plows used in the late 1950s were quite different from the forked stick. The beam of the plow, usually made of iron, was the part by which the plow was drawn. The handles attached to it were sometimes made of wood. The "frog" of the plow was the frame of the working part, or bottom, of the plow, and was usually made of steel. Attached to the plow bottom was the share, moldboard, and landside. The plow bottom lifted, turned and broke up the soil.
The "share" is the cutting edge that tears the furrow slice loose from the ground. The plowshare receives most of the power needed to operate a plow bottom in the ground. Plowshares were made of steel or iron.
There have been several types of plows used by farmers over the years. The "walking plow" was especially useful in tilling small plots of ground. It turned only one furrow, and was drawn by a team of horses or a yoke of oxen.
The "sulky" was a riding plow. It too was a horse-drawn plow that turned one furrow at a time. A "gang plow" was also a type of plow that could be ridden. It had two or more moldboards and usually had three wheels, one run in the open furrow just ahead of the first plow bottom. The other turned the furrow just back of the last bottom, and the third rolled on the unplowed land.
The tractor plows replaced the horse-drawn plows on more level farm lands. They have from one to six bottoms.
The five, and six, furrow gang plows, drawn by diesel tractors, for many, many years were capable of turning over many acres of land in a day, as the plow broke the hard crust of the earth, turning under the dried stalks of the previous year's crops. Plows used by many of our area farmers now have grown to have 16 bottom plows.
The "disk plow" was constructed differently from the mold board types, They turn the furrow with a rolling blade, two feet more in diameter. The disk plow cut a furrow eight to 12 inches wide and was used in plowing hard, sticky or stony land.
All in all, participants in the Aug. 7 plowing bee “dug up the dirt" and pleased the many local spectators who attended this ground breaking event, from Ellendale, Geneva, New Richland, Owatonna, Booming Prairie and Medford. They talked farming, as farmers always do.
