horse drawn cultivator

John B. had a nice post below of the horse drawn equiptment in his shed. The one picture of a cultivator sure brought back some memorys for me.When I was young my dad and I didnt always(agree) on certain things..I was offerd a job by Uncle Rube,my fathers uncle. I at the time I took the job,he offerd some pay,and surely it was better than working for dad? I didnt know it at the time,but Im pretty sure my dad knew Uncle Rube had patience ,and could probably straighten me out a bit. I have many memories of working with Uncle Rube when I Saw the cultivator,I Remembered sitting on that seat,stearing the iron wheels,as Uncle Rube towed the cultivator with his Ford 8N,Idled as low as it would go.At the end of the row it took all I could do to raise the handles to lift the cultivator up ,Uncle Rube did have patience,he had polio when he was young and one hand was somewhat deformed,it was a difficult job for him to turn the cultivator around,but he got it,,,we did that,dug many postholes ,and all kinds of hard ,,,hard work,,,,when I Came home at night my dad would say ,,,how was your day ? Me being stubborn,,,would never let him win,,,I said great!!!!

Larry your DAD did you a BIG favor letting you work for your Uncle. You learned two things.

1) That you should and could work for what you want. You drew some pay for working. That is what many do not get taught today.

2) That hard physical work will not hurt you. That enabled you to go on in life doing your masonry and other work. How are many of the kids your age that where just in the city and never broke a sweat doing today??? I know many smart, well educated men that say the secret to their success is the willingness to do hard work.


I have seen this first hand with my sons. Many of their contemporaries never got their hands dirty when they where younger. Hard work pretty much has been beneath them the rest of their lives. My sons where taught and required to work hard. That has served them well. They are doing well in life. I put part of that to not being afraid to work hard.

I have worked with many a fellow, that was years younger than me. Many of them could not work as hard as I would and could.

Had one this last spring helping my sons plant. He was a real nice young man. He had a good work ethic. He was 24 years old just out of college. He came from rural Kansas and was finishing school in Dubuque. He could barely lift a fifty lbs. bag of seed/fertilizer. I usually still handle two most of the time. Three if its the last ones. Now none of them as Fast as I used to. LOL

I bet that you can still close your eye and smell the fresh cultivated ground or maybe the exhaust fumes if the 8N had a belly muffler. LOL

Dad had a single row horse drawn cultivator when I was little. My job at the time was to take a jug of cold water out to the field a couple times a day. No place for me to ride on that cultivator so I never got to ride on it.

The 9N that he bought in late '39 came with a 2-rows cultivator so the horse drawn cultivator was only used in the garden after that.