Farming Methods & Farming Machinery

Pull-Type Tractor Plows When Uncle Herb and Uncle Walter Pfaff bought a new McCormick-Deering 10-20 tractor in 1928 they also bought a new McCormick-Deering P & O Little Wonder tractor plow. Pull type plows were of two types: one had a third wheel which stayed on the ground at all times. This was the type that Pete Lucht had. It was a McCormick-Deering. My dad bought a new Massey-Harris model 25 tractor plow in the spring of 1946. This plow was a trailer type, the rear wheel came off the ground when you lifted the plow out of the ground. Paul Zietlow owned an Allis-Chalmers tractor plow. When Rheiny Lucht bought a new Minneapolis-Moline Model Z tractor in the fall of 1947, he bought a Wizard tractor plow. My mother's Uncle Charles Pfaff owned a 3 bottom Case tractor plow. When Alvin Johnson plowed for us in the spring of 1944 he owned a 3 bottom John Deere tractor plow.

Mounted Tractor Plows When Pete Lucht bought a new Ford-son tractor in the fall of 1927 it was equipped with a Ferguson wheel-less plow with a hand lift. This was very handy because you could back right into a fence corner with it. For about 10 years, no more was heard of mounted plows. However, when the Ford Motor Co. brought out their new Ford tractor with the Ferguson system in the fall of 1939, they had a hydraulically operated mounted plow. Allis-Chalmers came out with a mounted plow in 1948 and after 1950 all of the major tractor manufacturers came out with mounted plows.

Spring-Tooth Harrows Since the soil was rocky in the Big Creek Community most of the farmers used a spring-tooth harrow to get the soil ready for sowing and planting and sowing. My dad owned a 2 section Osborne harrow and we pulled it with 3 horses. H. C. W. Lucht owned a 3 section Massey-Harris harrow and he used 4 horses on it. When Pete Lucht bought his Fordson tractor in 1927, he also bought a 3 section McCormick-Deering spring-tooth harrow with a row of Drad teeth in the rear. My dad bought a new Massey-Harris 3 section spring-tooth harrow in the spring of 1946. This harrow really did a good job of working up the plowed ground.

Field Cultivators The first field cultivator in our community was bought by Otto Daudert in the spring of 1938. It was an 8 foot John Deere-Van Brunt and he pulled it with his Massey-Harris model 25 tractor. This size cultivator required a 3 plow tractor to pull it. Pete Lucht bought a 6 foot McCormick-Deering field cultivator and I borrowed it once to work up a field by Carl Held's. When you set it deep it really gave the tractor a load. This was a Massey-Harris 101 Jr. tractor. Frank Lucht owned a 5 foot John Deere field cultivator and I went up to his place twice and hooked on to it.

Disc Harrows In the earlier years not many disc harrows were used in the Big Creek community because of the rocky soil. My dad did own an Osborne disc harrow and I recall that he disced corn stubble above the barn in the fall of 1934 and sowed rye on it.