Farmall Cub

I will be tilling for the first time in ten years on a patch of land that used to be a vegitable garden in Maine. I havent visited the propeerty sence 1998 and I ecpect I will have alot of clearing to do. There was alot of hard woods growing. My question is what would be the best set up to use to break through all those roots in order to clear the way for plowing and planting. I have picked up a 67 cub lo-boy. I know I should have gotten a cub but the lo-bo was what caught my eye.

Pete form Virginia Beach

A disk plow is a good choice for tearing through roots, etc., but I don't think they made one that will work on a lowboy. Considering that I would get a local farmer with a bigger rig to plow it the first time, or maybe use a ripper to tear out the roots.

You will definatly need to get a bigger unit, and it may even require a dozer to clear it out for the firsr time!! thanks; sonny

Ya I thought I may need to out source the first till. I was not sure how much work these little tractors are capable of. I was thinking of making my own ground ripper out of some 3/4 inch plate.

If you have not seen the property in that many years, you will be shocked at the size these weed trees can make and there is no way a little cub could handle that size trunks/roots/stumps(if you cut the tops off)!---they take over very fast,-- or at least they would here!

You might check for a reasonable priced backhoe loader tractor in that area, too!--this would be another option.----hire it out might be the most practical, for the first clean-up then the cub would do a lot of small stuff that will get missed by the bigger machine! thanks; sonny

Kind of makes you wonder how they did it before america became mechinized. There is a farmer down the road that has the heavy stuff, im sure he will trade some carpentry work for some plow work.
cant wait to see how the old property.

pete form Virginia beach

the way my grandpop and great uncle had my dad do it. A good mule or 2 and a shovel. They cleared 30 acres of overgrown peach and apple orchard.

64/67lo-boy wrote:Kind of makes you wonder how they did it before america became mechinized.

Generally they cut down the trees then worked around the stumps. Stumps and rocks were the main reason there were vertical lift versions of the horse drawn sickle mowers.

As an aside, they couldn't just work around the stumps when they were digging canals all over the country in the 1800s. They came up with some ingenious machinery for dealing with them when the Erie Canal was dug.

Some of the very old farm books, before tractors or motors, have photos of a stump puller. Its a hugh wheel on a much smaller axle. The axle is supported above the stump. The horses pull a rope rotating the much larger wheel. Chains around the axle to the stump.

When the French came to Canada and cleared the forests. They cut down the trees, farmed around the trees for several years until the roots rotted enough to remove the stumps. This method might be a solution.

Eugene wrote:Some of the very old farm books, before tractors or motors, have photos of a stump puller. Its a hugh wheel on a much smaller axle. The axle is supported above the stump. The horses pull a rope rotating the much larger wheel. Chains around the axle to the stump.

When the French came to Canada and cleared the forests. They cut down the trees, farmed around the trees for several years until the roots rotted enough to remove the stumps. This method might be a solution.

The old method was cut the trees and build a fire under the stumps. Even the Native Americans (eastern ones) used this. Most of the eastern farms / plantations used this method.

I have to do the same thing. I'm just hoping my neighbor will bring over his back hoe and wreck havoc on the stumps and roots. Keep us posted. When are you coming up. You might still have frost?

Don't forget T-N-T. That'll move'em.

Jerry

Well I did it. Cleared two acres in two weeks. I sure am glad that there is a cold season up in Maine. It slows the tree growth down. My wife reminded me that it was twenty years since we were up there with a garden.

I cut the small stuff with the belly mower. The rest of it I had to pull out with a 20 foot lenth of tow chain. The tree tops were still brushing the back of the tractor as they came down. The trees were about two to three inches at the base. Mostly birch but I did have some spruce and white pine. They had better root system than the birch.

The little tractor did a great job. I also cleared the drive way (about 350 feet), and spread about twenty four yards of gravel I had delivered.

No garden this year, but you can bet next year I will be ready to plant.

What is the best green manure crop to plant? There was alot of pine trees were the garden was suposed to be. I figure it is prety acidic because of the pine and poison ivey crop from this year. I did not take any sampels to test.

I did run a bottom plow through the soil. it was pretty rocky and did not look like it would be very good for a garden, although we used to grow vegies there back in the late eighties

All good ideas about the mechanical part of resurrecting an old garden. From the green side have a talk with your local extension agent. They know what kind of cover crop to plant in your area. Could be that a cover crop would not be advisable the first year. A soil test is the best thing you can do right now. Proper preparation this fall will be appreciated come harvest time. Keep us informed.

Pete,

I wish I would have seen this thread earlier, I would of offered to take some pictures of the property prior to your arrival to help plan. Where in Maine are you? Up here, the rocks grow faster than the trees