When I was a lad, more than six decades ago, I used a David Bradley "tractor" with a sickle bar to cut four acres. For a lad, it was a lot of fun! For cultivating and weeding I used my Grandfather's high wheel cultivator. Now, the soil had been tilled for 30 years and was well amended with pigeon (250 birds) manure, burned leaves and whatever was in the compost pile. The garden was 1/4 to 3/8 of an acre and took a little over an hour to clean up. But that is the key -- soil amendment. Worked in NJ in soil was not very rocky, but in CT where fist sized stones were the second largest crop, a high wheeled cultivator did not work very well. And here in Ohio on our property, forget both. Dig in with the cultivator and you need to ask permission to get the tool back. So I use a 2 cycle Mantis which is a killer in heavy clay/ gravely soil.
Nice vid Diego. I had the pleasure of obtaining an old Gravely back in the 80's from a man that once had chicken houses when chicken production was still local in Kansas. I loved the old rotary plow. I understand there was over 200 attachments for these walk behinds. The Gravely's had smaller wheels than the DB but we're incredible work horses. The Gravely rotary plow is great for making raised beds. I picked up a L8 Super Convertable unit in early 2015 in West Va that still ran with a plow, tiller. duals and blade for 1k. I had to drive 500 miles one way but well worth it.
Me too! I want to make it work like a ro-ho . I am using older cultivators on a super C farmall and that works out well until the corn gets over 2 and a half feet tall. I need something fast for a bigger corn patch. I have a Ro-Ho but I need something twice or three times that wide for the 36in rows. I also have a david Bradley I might use for finger weeders. I picked up a lightly used front tine tiller with chain drive. It will be easy to change the gearing on it if need be. For wheels I will make rough baskets. Then I will place an under the surface cutter bar in the back where the hold back plow is. In the old days before chemicals they would cultivate 3 times and that was sufficient until harvest. Now weeds have adapted to that and can grow 6ft tall in a month. So nowadays I need to continue cultivating after the corn has been laid by as they call the last tractor cultivation. Or else l get a jungle.
i guess i missed this when it came out. The truth is here, old school will always rule, and dont require you to reinvent the wheel. You can farm the world on the back of a 2 wheeled tractor.
I still have the David Bradly I used in the 1950's but I have gone mostly no till so I have not used it much lately. The disc harrow is working good so maybe I will try stirring up a patch to plant winter wheat.
You know, if you made up a sulky to sit on and get a small self powered rotary tiller to attach to it you'd have a competitive gardening tool. Need to go 9 inches deep minimum and be narrow to fit between rows.
This is easily done: 1. Put on a suit 2. Film in B&W 3. Adjust your intro e.g.: Why would a man use a 50 year old tractor alongside modern hi-tech machinery? To find out you'll have to enter... The Garden Zone."
I must bow to better wisdom. Schovel is spelled NOW shovel, and at 74 I feel sometimes like I was born in the 1300s lol I didnt know you could reassemble a DB cultivator past its origional cultivator settings to incorporate different uses. Ive never owned one, but always wanted to. I do have a DB harrow. I pull it behind my Panzer tractor. I also have a small harrow that looks exactly like a regular harrow frame. I use it when the crops push out away from their stems and the DB harrow is too wide to get in between the rows without snagging some of the plants. I have a MW 2 wheel tractor that I have a disc reconstituted so to make ridges with, tho I can take the riger off and just other implements if I had them for it. Finally I have 2 tillers, a Mantis, and a Troy Bilt, AND when I ever get the engine rebuilt, a Cub Farmall with a spring tooth cultivator
Go to a rural Nursing Home fr Assisted Living Facility and befriend some old farmers. Whether they have their faculties or not, there is information there that makes the Almanac tremble Concerning planting and transplants for example..."First they sleep, second they creep, third they leap." This time-line is applicable to days, weeks, months or even years; depending on the situation and the planting. It's even scalable !
thats how it should be. I am thinking a coop where crowd sourcing connects people, people who have money to donate (to be reimbursed with veggies) to the non-profit, people with property (to be reimbursed with veggies), people who want to work on these farms, (to be reimbursed with ...) hopefully experts who can share their knowledge and hopefully some people with the scientific and testing for organic knowledge. The non-profit can purchase permeant self-owned property, where, once it has its own money, can be not only equipped with nature reserves, park area, and even long-term coop employees dwelling spaces, little percentage of the land going to make small cabins or something, i really like this tech in this video, thank you for sharing, its always very inspiring, but also i have been thinking myself for those farms i would want to develop a kind of, like a mine cart trolly situation throughout the fields for harvests or to deliver water or seeds or whatever they farm workers need. I know my idea is out there, but it makes sense to me that we need to combine the ancient and the modern, the old and the new to make a ideal longevity minded system.
Anybody earing shorts cant be to smart talking about farm/gardening stuff.The cultivator that the man had on his DV is made ONLY for cultivating. YES you can put different schovels on it, you can set the schovel shanks at different places, BUT, it is ONLY a cultivator. DB Made a plow, disc, harrow, sickle mower, lawn mower, sprayer, and dump rake for the tractor. EACH TOOL was ONLY for the usage above described.. You couldn't discombobulate a harrow to make a better disc out of it, Or change the plow around so that it could harrow. EACH machine did ONLY its own thing.
I agree with you on the shorts, but I disagree with you on just about everything else. First, it hasn't been spelled 'schovel' since around 1300. Second, David 'Vradley' made a slue of kits to be mounted on the cultivator frame for all sorts of variations on cultivation and for hilling rows, too. I rather like the idea of mounting finger weeders on that frame, and might just do that on my own David Bradley tractors.
When I was a lad, more than six decades ago, I used a David Bradley "tractor" with a sickle bar to cut four acres. For a lad, it was a lot of fun! For cultivating and weeding I used my Grandfather's high wheel cultivator. Now, the soil had been tilled for 30 years and was well amended with pigeon (250 birds) manure, burned leaves and whatever was in the compost pile. The garden was 1/4 to 3/8 of an acre and took a little over an hour to clean up. But that is the key -- soil amendment. Worked in NJ in soil was not very rocky, but in CT where fist sized stones were the second largest crop, a high wheeled cultivator did not work very well. And here in Ohio on our property, forget both. Dig in with the cultivator and you need to ask permission to get the tool back. So I use a 2 cycle Mantis which is a killer in heavy clay/ gravely soil.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge! I appreciate it.
I could not be any further away , but I have in excess of 100 Walk behind David Bradley’s tractors. I’m in Northern NY
DEPRESSON ERA WAS NOT 40S TO 60'S
Nice vid Diego. I had the pleasure of obtaining an old Gravely back in the 80's from a man that once had chicken houses when chicken production was still local in Kansas. I loved the old rotary plow. I understand there was over 200 attachments for these walk behinds. The Gravely's had smaller wheels than the DB but we're incredible work horses. The Gravely rotary plow is great for making raised beds. I picked up a L8 Super Convertable unit in early 2015 in West Va that still ran with a plow, tiller. duals and blade for 1k. I had to drive 500 miles one way but well worth it.
Currently taking the tines off my front tine roto tiller and putting wheels on it and a toolbar for cultivating.
Me too! I want to make it work like a ro-ho . I am using older cultivators on a super C farmall and that works out well until the corn gets over 2 and a half feet tall. I need something fast for a bigger corn patch. I have a Ro-Ho but I need something twice or three times that wide for the 36in rows. I also have a david Bradley I might use for finger weeders. I picked up a lightly used front tine tiller with chain drive. It will be easy to change the gearing on it if need be. For wheels I will make rough baskets. Then I will place an under the surface cutter bar in the back where the hold back plow is. In the old days before chemicals they would cultivate 3 times and that was sufficient until harvest. Now weeds have adapted to that and can grow 6ft tall in a month. So nowadays I need to continue cultivating after the corn has been laid by as they call the last tractor cultivation. Or else l get a jungle.
David Bradley's are so cool. So getting one once I get my larger farm.
i guess i missed this when it came out. The truth is here, old school will always rule, and dont require you to reinvent the wheel. You can farm the world on the back of a 2 wheeled tractor.
Nice information. Good sound quality. Inspiring. Thank you for sharing. God bless America.
I still have the David Bradly I used in the 1950's but I have gone mostly no till so I have not used it much lately. The disc harrow is working good so maybe I will try stirring up a patch to plant winter wheat.
You know, if you made up a sulky to sit on and get a small self powered rotary tiller to attach to it you'd have a competitive gardening tool. Need to go 9 inches deep minimum and be narrow to fit between rows.
Every time I watch you, I feel like telling you that you should be hosting a modern day Twilight Zone. You have a great voice and I enjoy your videos!
Thanks, I would jump at that opportunity. :)
This is easily done:
1. Put on a suit
2. Film in B&W
3. Adjust your intro e.g.: Why would a man use a 50 year old tractor alongside modern hi-tech machinery? To find out you'll have to enter... The Garden Zone."
I must bow to better wisdom. Schovel is spelled NOW shovel, and at 74 I feel sometimes like I was born in the 1300s lol I didnt know you could reassemble a DB cultivator past its origional cultivator settings to incorporate different uses. Ive never owned one, but always wanted to. I do have a DB harrow. I pull it behind my Panzer tractor. I also have a small harrow that looks exactly like a regular harrow frame. I use it when the crops push out away from their stems and the DB harrow is too wide to get in between the rows without snagging some of the plants. I have a MW 2 wheel tractor that I have a disc reconstituted so to make ridges with, tho I can take the riger off and just other implements if I had them for it. Finally I have 2 tillers, a Mantis, and a Troy Bilt, AND when I ever get the engine rebuilt, a Cub Farmall with a spring tooth cultivator
Go to a rural Nursing Home fr Assisted Living Facility and befriend some old farmers. Whether they have their faculties or not, there is information there that makes the Almanac tremble Concerning planting and transplants for example..."First they sleep, second they creep, third they leap." This time-line is applicable to days, weeks, months or even years; depending on the situation and the planting. It's even scalable !
thats how it should be. I am thinking a coop where crowd sourcing connects people, people who have money to donate (to be reimbursed with veggies) to the non-profit, people with property (to be reimbursed with veggies), people who want to work on these farms, (to be reimbursed with ...) hopefully experts who can share their knowledge and hopefully some people with the scientific and testing for organic knowledge. The non-profit can purchase permeant self-owned property, where, once it has its own money, can be not only equipped with nature reserves, park area, and even long-term coop employees dwelling spaces, little percentage of the land going to make small cabins or something, i really like this tech in this video, thank you for sharing, its always very inspiring, but also i have been thinking myself for those farms i would want to develop a kind of, like a mine cart trolly situation throughout the fields for harvests or to deliver water or seeds or whatever they farm workers need. I know my idea is out there, but it makes sense to me that we need to combine the ancient and the modern, the old and the new to make a ideal longevity minded system.
They still use a lot of those over in Asia and other countries over there
love this
Anybody earing shorts cant be to smart talking about farm/gardening stuff.The cultivator that the man had on his DV is made ONLY for cultivating. YES you can put different schovels on it, you can set the schovel shanks at different places, BUT, it is ONLY a cultivator. DB Made a plow, disc, harrow, sickle mower, lawn mower, sprayer, and dump rake for the tractor. EACH TOOL was ONLY for the usage above described.. You couldn't discombobulate a harrow to make a better disc out of it, Or change the plow around so that it could harrow. EACH machine did ONLY its own thing.
I agree with you on the shorts, but I disagree with you on just about everything else. First, it hasn't been spelled 'schovel' since around 1300. Second, David 'Vradley' made a slue of kits to be mounted on the cultivator frame for all sorts of variations on cultivation and for hilling rows, too. I rather like the idea of mounting finger weeders on that frame, and might just do that on my own David Bradley tractors.