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Show PLOWING IS HARD ON HORSES Few Teams That Are Not Doing Ten to Thirty Per Cent of Unnecessary Unneces-sary Work in Fields. (By E. W. HAMILTON.) Plowing is at best the hardest work our farm horses have to perform. Few plow teams are not doing 10 to 30 per cent of unnecessary work. The writer writ-er has seen plows which he believed were pulling 50 per cent harder than they should. We are told that about 50 per cent of the draft of a plow is due to the cutting of the furrow slice. The condition con-dition of the cutting edge must then be of first importance. Expert plowmen plow-men recognize this and in competitions competi-tions file their shares to knife edges. One authority claims that an old share resharpened has shown 36 per cent heavier draft than a new share. Again, engine plows of the same make and size have under the same conditions condi-tions showed 45 per cent difference in draft in favor of the new freshly filed shares over resharpened shares in ordinary or-dinary condition. It will certainly pay to keep the plow shares sharp and in proper form. The set and adjustment of a plow is almost as much to do with the draft as condition of the share. A riding plow with rear furrow wheel should pull little or no harder than a walking plow or plows of the same widths. Yet how many do it? About 30 per cent of the draft of a walking plow is due to the friction of the plow on the bottom and side of the furrow. fur-row. In the riding plow this friction is eliminated by carrying the weight and down and side pressure of plow bottom on wheels. To accomplish this the rear furrow wheel is set out about an inch and a quarter so that land-side land-side cannot touch the side furrow. The wheel is also set down so the heel of landside is raised one half to three-fourths inches off bottom of furrow. fur-row. When so set the plow bottom will sink into the ground and hang there. When plow bottoms "float" in the frame none of the bottom and side pressure is removed and the draft of the bottoms is the same as that of the walking plows to which must be added that due to weight of plow frame and driver. |