Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-08-17
DOMESTIC ECONOMY.
TOPICS Of Interest Relating to Farm
and Household Manage
ment
Information for the Plowman, Stock.
man, Poulterer, Nurseryman,
and Housewife.
THE FARM.
PIow. and Flowing,
ment

Prof. Sanborn, last year, at the Uni
iycrsity of Missouri, made various ex-
periments withplows and in plowlng.
4 summary of the conclusions as ar
rived at, is given as follows:
A detection Of the traces when under
draft from straight line from shoulder
to doubletree, results in decided loss
of power, and such loss is applied to
the CALLING and worrying Of the horse. :,
The use of truck or little wheel
under the end of the pillow beam gained
III per cent. of the draft as an average
of the trails made, and in addition gave
more uniform furrow and relieved the
plowman. This saving can be made
only when the line of draft is right.
The use of the coulter, was, without
exception, attended with decided loss
of force or increased draft by whatever
form of coulter used, but was less with
the new style coulter than with the roll
ing and fashioned coulter. The
average gain of draft by dispensing with
the coulter was 1916 per cent. The coul-
ter invariably disturbed the line of
draft. resulting in furrow of different
dimensions from those formed with
out it.
The draft of pillow decreases as depth
of furrow increases. until it reaches the
plow's normal capacity, and then in
creases as the depth is increased beyond
this capacity Of the pillow. This law is
modified by the fact that as furrow in
creases in size, the ratio of cutting face
or edge of pillow to the furrow turned de-
creases.
The draft of pillow decreases as width
of furrow increases, until the normal
capacity of the pillow is reached, after
which it increases again under the same
limitations as in previous cases OF depth,
yet it does not increase in as rapid q
ratio as is seen in case of depth. The
absolute draft in a tifteen-inch furrow
was less than For ten-inch furrow.
- The discord o.e these results with those
previously found by others has several
possible explanations, one Of which may
possibly be the influence of pillow i'm
provement.
The necessity of intelligently adjust
ing the furrow to the normal capacity of
the pillow, or using only plows that will
be normal to the furrow turned was made
apparent. The loss in draft from fur
row varying from the plow's normal ca
pacity by two points only, was for an
average of all trials of varying widths
and depths, 81 per cent. From the
standpoint of draft it is poor economy
to turn small furrow. Three horses
are better than two in blowing.
II one adds the savings from the three
factors discussed-truck,~ coulters, and
width and depth-one gets 49.7 per cent;
or pillow with truck on, coulter off, and
pillow good-sized furrow, will give this
percent of gain when put against o
pillow with coulter on, truck off and turn
inga shallow, narrow furrow; or rather
the latter will draw 1917 per cent. harder
than the former, if the Professors data
nre correct.
A seven by fourteen inch furrow re-
quires about three-horse power to turn
it. Those who use two horses, either
turn small costly furrow or overdraw
their horses upon sod land of the kind
in question: clay loan.
A furrow turned whose size is not nor
NAL to the pillow, is usually, if not al
ways, jerky or uneven one, poor and
hard on the workman.