Time to Cultivate...

One of the many things I've learned through this garden process is the words cultivate, plow and till are used interchangeably but pretty much mean the same thing.  Since our first two rows of corn were finally about 6 inches tall, dad pulled out his old cultivator to help promote better growth.  The dirt was pretty packed down and, of course, very dry. Grass was also starting to grow between the rows of corn and since grass will overtake the plants very quickly, we needed to get a jump on getting the dirt broken up again and throw some more dirt up around each plant to kill the grass growing around them.  Take a look at what the row looked like before...

His cultivator just makes tilling larger areas faster and easier.  Here's what he continues to refer to as "the old Farmall"...

     This is a 1949 Farmall "C".  My grandpa Ward (dad's father) purchased this new tractor and matching cultivators in 1949, my dad's birth year, for $900.  Grandpa Ward and dad both have plowed several 10-20 acre fields of corn with it over the years.  My dad's not "that old" but it is amazing to me this family heirloom is still in working condition and still gets the job done!  Here's a view from the rear of the tractor where the cultivators can be seen better.

We purposely planted our garden rows 42" apart so we could eventually use this tractor in the garden.  The front cultivators are spaced to plow two (2) 42" spaced rows at a time.  The rear cultivators are spaced to loosen the tracks made by the tractor wheels as it moves through the rows.  Here's a few other pictures of the people who were out near the garden watching dad do this job...Obviously, Brett is in the stage where he likes to make silly faces when posing for pictures...Oh well...He was having fun!