Farming for Self-Sufficiency-Independece on a 5-acre farm
(Page 3 of 9)
If you have anything over an acre of arable land it might
well pay to get a big tractor, if you can buy one cheap. It
might well pay to get a petrol-paraffin, or 'T.V.O.' one,
for these are much easier to start (you can swing them by
hand) and if they do cost a little more for fuel, well how
much fuel will you use anyway on a small place? In using a
farm tractor on a smallholding you are using a sledgehammer
to crack a nut, but if you can get a sledgehammer for the
price of a nut-cracker-and it does the job equally well or
better-then maybe it is worth it. Our present holding is
seventy acres, so, in the absence of time to do our work
with horses; we need a large tractor.
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GARDEN CULTIVATOR ...
Garden cultivators are a different thing altogether. The
kind that pull ploughshares-unless they are very heavy
ones-I would discount. They plough but I don't believe they
plough very well. The rotovator kind are of two types. One,
like the Howard, pulls itself along by its wheels and stirs
the soil by means of the rotovator. Others, like the
Merrytiller, have no power-driven wheels while they are
rotovating, but shove themselves along with the rotovator
itself.
The latter are harder work to handle but I believe they do
a better job if you are comparing machines of the same
size. The Merrytiller type of machine is excellent for
inter-row cultivation, for keeping land clean between soft
fruit trees, and for the initial clearing of small areas of
ground. It is nimble, handy and cheap. The bigger
wheel-propelled machines like the Howard are better for
working large areas of land.
The consumption of fuel for all these machines is almost
negligible, but the amount of ground they can get over in a
day is comparatively small. To use them on a field scale is
tedious beyond belief, and they make an awful lot of noise.
If you like to hear the birds sing while you work (and for
me that is very important) they are not for you.
HORSE ...
And so we come to the horse, and here many people who have
not worked with horses, or seen them working, will say 'how
absurd! You might as well go back to ploughing with oxen!'
Well I have ploughed with oxen, and would very much like to
do so again and may one day.
There is nothing wrong with ploughing with oxen at all. And
as for horses-they have a great deal to be said for them.
PLOUGHING...
With two good horses it is possible to plough an acre of
moderate land in a day. Your fuel need cost you nothing (at
least nothing that has to come from outside the farm), you
can hear the birds sing as you work, and will not be
working in diesel or petrol fumes, and, if you have a good
rapport with your horses, ploughing can be a delight. I
don't believe there is a more entrancing occupation. And
there is one little thing that a horse can do that a
tractor can't, and that is to have another horse. A mare
can work in chains (although not in shafts) to within a few
hours of foaling. She foals in the spring, so can work the
winter through, which is when you want to do your
ploughing. After she has had her foal she must rest for six
weeks at least, and then only come into her work gradually.
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