Cultivators --or-- those funny pointed things

[drspiff]

Howdy All! Here are some pictures of the cultivators and frames I picked up from Bob MacDuff last week. Here is what they look like.


There are 6 of these #16 Spring Cultivators. They all have shovels on them, but they are not all the same size. I measured across the tips of the "wings" and they are 14", 7 1/2", and 6 1/4". In addition, there are some spare shovels shown below:



I'm assuming that the large device in the lower right corner is also for the #16 Spring unit.

There are 2 mounting frames that came with the cultivators. The front frame looks like the No.616 Six Sweep Frame , (but what do I know about this?). The rear is either the 122 or 123 Two Sweep Frame. Here are pictures of both the front and rear frames.


The Universal Mounting Frame came with the No.616. I have no idea what the "U-bolt" looking thing is in the middle. But it looks like good iron...

Here is the rear mounting frame with the rear rockshaft still attached.


My questions about this implements...

1. I've seen the triangular, pointy-things referred to as sweeps, shields, and as shovels. What are they really called?
2. The 144 Cultivator manual says that the No.616 came with 10" sweeps. Assuming that mean the pointy thing, how is the 10" measured? Across the tips of the wings? From front to back?
3. What is the piece in the lower right of the spare shovel picture? Does it have a special name?
4. What is the purpose of these cultivators? Is it to plow ground? Or just turn dirt that has already been plowed and planted?
5. Since these are spring trip standards, one can assume they trip if they snag on something. How does one reset a tripped standard?

Please forgive the simplicity of these questions, but I was 12 years old before I learned that milk came from a cow and not a carton.

Rick (Never too late to learn something) Dulas

[Bigdog]

DrSpiff - The "pointy things" are sweeps and shovels. The ones with "wings" are called sweeps and come in different sizes (which is measured across the width of the sweep at the 2 "wingtips". There was also a half-sweep which had the wing removed on one side. They were available in left or right configurations.
The ones called shovels are triangular in shape but do not have wings.
The one in the lower right is a middle buster.
They are used for weed control in row crops. They uproot the weeds between the rows and bury them in the loose dirt to kill them out.
Some of the spring shanks self re-set the others are re-set with a BFH.

[KETCHAM]

Great anwser BD.I like the last one best!!!That how I fix half my stuff!!!HaHa!!!Yes those cultivators save me a lot of time weeding and they do a great job!!!Huge garden this year and I'll be using them a lot!!!!Kevin

[Bugler]

Great post,,,, I need all of it,,,,,, now it is printed and in my notebox of cub stuff. I hate to call something as a "thingy". Thanks

[drspiff]

So BD, is the Middlebuster a member of the shovel class? Or is it in a category by itself? I'm trying to get the terminology right.

Between what I read in the Cultivator manual and what BD has said, I can visualize tearing up the weeds. But I'm not clear how a plow is different from a cultivator. In the thread about 3 Cubs, the plow I brought home was identified as a Cub-16 Middlebuster. The shape of that piece and the cultivator middlebuster look alike to me.

Can one plow with cultivators shod with shovels?
What is the essential difference between plows and cultivators?

This is trying to pin down jello. I'm sure at some point the light will go on, and I will understand all of this.

Rick (searching for the light switch) Dulas

[Super A]

So BD, is the Middlebuster a member of the shovel class? Or is it in a category by itself? I'm trying to get the terminology right.

Between what I read in the Cultivator manual and what BD has said, I can visualize tearing up the weeds. But I'm not clear how a plow is different from a cultivator. In the thread about 3 Cubs, the plow I brought home was identified as a Cub-16 Middlebuster. The shape of that piece and the cultivator middlebuster look alike to me.

Can one plow with cultivators shod with shovels?
What is the essential difference between plows and cultivators?

This is trying to pin down jello. I'm sure at some point the light will go on, and I will understand all of this.

Rick (searching for the light switch) Dulas

In the context of a Cub, the 144 (and similar) cultivators were for weed control. The 193 plow, the disk harrow, and the middlebuster are for "primary tillage," which basically means preparing the ground to eventually plant.

The only time I have ever used a middlebuster is for digging taters and similar crops, for what it's worth. The middlebuster could be used to make raised beds to plant on top of, and in some parts of the country where rain was more scarse, they planted in the furrows created by the middlebuster (called "listing" I believe.)

You could, if you were in the right soil type, use the cultivator with sweeps, to do some basic tillage. The main thing would be a shallower depth than with a plow, which would limit what you could do. The way it was done in eastern NC, however, when the Cub was state of the art, was to possibly disk first, then plow, then disk, then make rows, then plant. The row making could be done with the cultivator and various shovels.

I'm on my Mom's computer right now. I'm having ISP 'issues.' Let me scan some pictures tonight and see if I can email or upload them--I don't know how much my school computer will let me do.

In the meantime, try this link, it provides an example.

http://www.farmallcub.com/wiki/doku.php?id=furrow_plant_hill

Maybe this helps--a little.

Al

[Bigdog]

If you want to get further confused, throw local dialect into the mix. Around her (central Ohio) we always "plowed" corn. We never "cultivated" corn.
Al pretty much nailed it with his descriptions. When he mentions that we disked, plowed and then disked again - the first pass with the disk was to cut up the vegetation a bit so it would turn under easier. Then, after plowing, the disk was used to break up the clods in the plowed ground and prepare the soil for planting.

[Jim Becker]

The thing in the lower right of your second picture is properly a "furrower." If you compare it to your Cub-16 Middlebuster, you will find it smaller. Your furrower bolts on the same as the sweeps, shovels etc.

"Shields" are sheet metal pieces that can be placed to slide along near the row to keep the cultivator from covering the plants you are cultivating. Depending on where you are, you may sometimes hear these called "fenders."

The standard in your first picture is, as stated, a spring trip. If it hits something and trips, it will reset itself as soon as it clears the obstruction. There are also friction trip standards that look similar but have no spring section. You have to manually reset them with a wrench if they trip. There were (pre-Cub days) standards that had a wooden shear pin. When the pin broke, you had to reset them and put in a new pin.

[Russ Leggitt]

Just to throw a little more confusion on the subject of "thingy". A middle in the south is the depression between the rows. And a middlebust is not a plow [plough] that runs or is used in the middle. It is made to rip [plow] the center of an old "row" thus making a new "middle" or depression to allow for water run off. Actually when you use a middle buster on previously rowed ground you are in fact moving the row 1/2 row at a time. Two passes then makes a row and a half.

A shield or fender is also know in some circles as a skirt. All names accomplish the same thing and that is to allow one to move enough loose dirt close to the plant in order to cover up unwanted vegetation while protecting the "wanted" plants.

Some large winged plows are also know in the south as Buzzard Wings. Not to be confused with the "Cub Guy" with the same handle. Don't know where he took his handle from.

I was in high school and taking AG before I ever heard the term "cultivate". We always plowed corn, cotton, garden, and soybeans.

Spring-tooth cultivators are called "scratchers" around here. Just to add a little locational flavor.

[danovercash]

The "middlebuster" would be mounted on a trip foot, in turn mounted on a toolbar under the belly of the tractor. For "laying off rows". I did not know that my "snake teeth" were mounted on "scratchers".

[drspiff]

This is so cool! Reminds me of a charge card commercial


3 Cubs and assorted implements: $975
Learning about the implements: Priceless!

Thank you everyone for helping to teach a city boy how to plow and to cultivate a feel for farming.

Rick (I could not let the opportunity pass) Dulas

[Super A]

One of the great things about the 144 cultivators is their flexability. There are so many sweeps, shovels, hillers, etc. available that you can do all kinds of things to all kinds of crops--and we haven't even talked about the aftermarket stuff out there.

We generally "plow" or "work" or "cultivate," depending on who you're talking to.

If, I say IF I can make the time later this spring, I intend to put some pics together on various things you can do with the 144 cultivator. Depending on how quick The Paperweight gets out of the shop, the pics will be based on either it or the Cub.

Al

[Billy Fussell]

I like this! There is a great deal of different names for the same things, depending on the area you are from. Here the shields are called cotton fenders. We had the middle buster used like Russ said, buzzard wings already mentioned, bull tounge, and solid sweeps. I read somewhere that the real name for a solid sweep was Alabama sweep.The knuckle on the end of the beam of a georgia stock to help adjust draft was called a buckhead. The clip used to fasten the trace chains to the hames was called a loggerhead. And we had heel sweeps shaped sorta like a boomarang. Had no point and was used with a bull tounge or corn shovel. The term cultivate was seldom used. We plowed everything. And you "run around the corn" meaning that you ran both sides of the corn and then ran out the middle. I am sure there are more terms that I have forgotten. These terms were used in the old cotton and corn days when folks used mules. There were no large farms that poor people could afford, so no need for a tractor. There were some tractors but not many.

Billy

[Super A]

I like this! There is a great deal of different names for the same things, depending on the area you are from. Here the shields are called cotton fenders. We had the middle buster used like Russ said, buzzard wings already mentioned, bull tounge, and solid sweeps.

I forgot the bull tongue. THey used them to make a furrow, fertilizer went in the furrow, then had the hillers right beside making up the row.

I have never heard of anybody calling the buzzard wings "buzzard wings." They were tobacco plows here. We use them a LOT in the garden.

Getting off the Cub subject for a minute, my dad who will be 70 in a couple months, has told me that they chopped in the field (that is, used a hoe on the weeds) almost continuously during the growing season. This continued even after they got the Super A. He said he could chop as fast as he could walk, and very, very, very rarely cut down a hill or corn or tobacco by mistake.

Also, the big advantage the Cub had over a mule, as little as it was, as you could work the entire row and both middles in one pass. A mule required at least three passes to cultivate one row.

Al

[Billy Fussell]

Al

You are right about having to make three passes per row with a mule. A cub cuts your time down conciderbly. Around here the term "chopping cotton" meant thinning. You chopped out what cotton looked poor and left the rest. You still had to hoe out the weeds. All the fertilizer the folkes used around here was triple 8. Didn't know what rotation meant, and cotton is hard on the land, it will use it up if you don't use good fertilizer and let a field lay fallow once and a while.

Billy