Lastest Horse Pasture Grass Seed News
July 22, 2010
Disk Harrow / Steve and Marg’s Farm / October, 2008
Image by bill barber (back later this month)
From my set entitled “Steve and Marg’s Farm”
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/sets/72157608031549391/
In my collection entitled
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/collections/7215760074…
In my photostream
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/
My brother, Stephen Pallett, has farmed near the south shore of Lake Simcoe for close to fifty years: poultry, pigs, beef and an assortment of field crops. Over the years he has served as an area councillor and was on the board of the conservation authority. Currently, he is vice president of the Red Barn Theatre in Jackson’s Point, and also serves as chair for the committee of adjustment for the Town of Georgina. Another of his activities has been the annual bird count.
Reproduced from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrow_(tool)
In agriculture, a set of harrows is an implement for cultivating the surface of the soil. In this way it is distinct in its effect from the plough, which is used for deeper cultivation. They are commonly called harrows (plural) as they are used as a set. There are nominally three types of harrows; disc (disk), tine and chain.
Harrows were originally horse-drawn. In modern practice they are almost always tractor-mounted implements, drawn after the tractor, either trailed or mounted on the three-point linkage.
Harrowing is often carried out on fields to follow the rough finish left by ploughing operations. The purpose of this harrowing is generally to break up clods and lumps of soil and to provide a finer finish, a good tilth or soil structure that is suitable for seeding and planting operations. Such coarser harrowing may also be used to remove weeds and to cover seed after sowing.
In cooler climates the most common types are the disc harrow, the chain harrow, the tine harrow or spike harrow and the spring tine harrow. Chain harrows are often used for lighter work such as levelling the tilth or covering seed, while disc harrows are typically used for heavy work, such as following ploughing to break up the sod. In addition, there are various types of power harrow, in which the cultivators are power-driven from the tractor rather than depending on its forward motion.
Tine harrows are used to refine seed-bed condition before planting, to remove small weeds in growing crops and to loosen the inter-row soils to allow for water to soak into the subsoil.
Chain harrowing may be used on pasture land to spread out dung, and to break up dead material (thatch) in the sward, and similarly in sports-ground maintenance a light chain harrowing is often used to level off the ground after heavy use, to remove and smooth out boot marks and indentations. When used on tilled land in combination with the other two types, chain harrowing rolls the remaining larger clumps of soil to the surface where the weather will break them down and prevent interference with seed germination.
All three harrow types can be used in one pass to prepare the soil for seeding. It is also common to used any combination of two harrows for a variety of tilling processes. Where harrowing provides a very fine tilth, or the soil is very light so that it might easily be wind-blown, a roller is often added as the last of the set.
Harrows may be of several types and weights, depending on the intended purpose. They almost always consist of a rigid frame to which are attached discs, teeth, linked chains or other means of cultivation, but tine and chain harrows are often only supported by a rigid towing-bar at the front of the set.
In the southern hemisphere the so-called giant discs are a specialised kind of disc harrows that can stand in for a plough in very rough country where a mouldboard plough will not handle the tree-stumps and rocks, and a disc-plough is too slow (because of its limited number of discs). Giant discs are scalloped-edged discs operated in a set, or frame, that is often weighted with concrete or steel blocks to improve penetration of the cutting edges. This sort of cultivation is normally immediately followed by broadcast fertilisation and seeding, rather than drilled or row seeding.
A drag is a heavy harrow.
In Europe, harrows were first used in the early Middle Ages.
The following text is taken from the Household Cyclopedia of 1881:
"When employed to reduce a strong obdurate soil, not more than two harrows should be yoked together, because they are apt to ride and tumble upon each other, and thus impede the work, and execute it imperfectly. On rough soils, harrows ought to be driven as fast as the horses can walk; because their effect is in the direct proportion to the degree of velocity with which they are driven. In ordinary cases, and in every case where harrowing is meant for covering the seed, three harrows are the best yoke, because they fill up the ground more effectually and leave fewer vacancies, than when a smaller number is employed. The harrowman’s attention, at the seed process, should be constantly directed to prevent these implements from riding upon each other, and to keep them clear of every impediment from stones, lumps of earth, or clods, and quickens or grass roots; for any of these prevents the implement from working with perfection, and causes a mark or trail upon the surface, always unpleasing to the eye, and generally detrimental to the vegetation of the seed. Harrowing is usually given in different directions, first in length, then across, and finally in length as at first. Careful husbandmen study, in the finishing part of the process, to have the harrows drawn in a straight line, without suffering the horses to go in a zigzag manner, and are also attentive that the horses enter fairly upon the ridge, without making a curve at the outset. In some instances, an excess of harrowing has been found very prejudicial to the succeeding crop; but it is always necessary to give so much as to break the furrow, and level the surface, otherwise the operation is imperfectly performed."
Post processing:
Topaz: detail (HDR)
PhotoShop Elements 5: straighten, light balance, multiply, posterization, ink outlines
Related posts:
Awesome farm items…so very nostalgic…great capture and treatment, Bill. Have a great Sunday!
What a beautiful shot. How neat it must be to have a farm like that. Sounds like your brother gets to do some interesting things!
Superb post processing : must be seen in the original size ! Perfect, Bill!
You have a wonderful way of presenting the simplest thing brilliantly and artistically Bill! have a great Sunday my dear friend!!!
You have managed to tell a wonderful story about a lifetime here, in just a couple of lines!!!
You are a good story teller…..should think about writing books!!!
This photo of this farm equipment is outstanding! Beautifully framed on location! Terrific composition.
You really DO have a most interesting and varied family!!!
he seems a busy man with all those duties:-) execellent work!
Beautiful composition ! ! Superb work !
Very nice capture.
Have a great Sunday, Bill.
Outstanding and so wonderfully captured!
~I SNIFFED out this wonderful image!
You deserve this nose worthy award!
Please ADD your
Impressively beautiful
photo to~
Impressed by your Beauty! (Invite only images)
Please tag your photos ImpressedBeauty
nice image ….
they have a life all their own!! A real scenic feel. I could use a couple of those for weed control here.
A really harrowing experience! Great shot, colour treatment and history…You are invited to display your image.
Ineffable
If you accept this Invitation, please give awards to other images.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/showmemagic/pool
Beautiful HDR shot, my friend!
Nice capture and effect as always Bill! A lot of work goes into making the ground ready for planting! Your brother is a very busy man! Does he act too or just over see the operations? I don’t act, I was just asking. The bird count is very interesting too! I’ve seen Canadian geese in the past with leg tags so they could track their flights. Have a great Sunday!
Very interesting , thanks for sharing … unique image -
nostalgia at its best, thanks for the info.
beautiful details and terrif processing, Bill !
interesting shot
nice shot…
Please add this beautiful photo to CITRIT,Best of yours!
Citrit group
Invited with SOS!
Beautiful composition Bill, amazing processing and wonderful story love this
Hi, I’m an admin for a group called Liberality (Post 1 / Award 2), and we’d love to have this added to the group!
Excellent shot and story…farming requires strength in spirit and physical ability…I admire those who work their fingers to the bone! Kudos to your family! Oh, and when I first glanced at this I thought it said Maggie’s farm…now I’ve got the Bob Dylan song playing in my head, he,he,he! Have a good night!
This is ART!
Please add in Art of Images (?Invite 1 AWARD on 2?)
and Tag the photo with "ArtofImages"
Hi, I’m an admin for a group called World Wide Open — Member By Invitation Only, and we’d love to have this added to the group!
Very nice work and capture!
Wonderfully captured my Friend!!!
the march of machinery.
I’d hate to get a cut off that one set!
–
Seen on your photo stream. (?)
I still see some of these used Bill…cool shot and great info!
OKAY!
Lots of textures and details. Great capture and processing, Bill!
Wonderfully done Bill!
Very natural & beautiful natural scene. Thank you for the image background introduction. That’s very great to hear about your brother’s contribution at this field.
Bonjour, je suis l’administrateur du groupe Fave Moi France (P1/ F3), B&W contest (Voting open), et nous aimerions beaucoup que vous ajoutiez ceci à notre groupe !
excellent work my dear!!
that’s really great!!
have a nice week!!
Beautiful composition..!! Well done my dear friend..!
Wonderful shot!
beautiful colors in this one…like the rust!
very artistic work !
expresive!
thanks ,BILL !
Awesome composition !!!
Great Photo.
My grandfather grew up on a farm. He let me play with some large longish magnets that he said they used to get metal, barbed wire, out of the cow’s stomach.
Very nice photo.
Looks really really good!
beautiful colours
Great details !
A great representation of this simple rural scene. Emphasizing the outlines really makes the disks stand out. Grand job.
this is wonderful!
Amazing, this is so detailed, I can almost smell the grass. My compliments for the photographer.
Your photo is superb !
Please add this photo to
http://www.flickr.com/groups/focuslegacy