From the magazine: No. 4 2016
Category: History
Have you ever thought about how quickly agricultural technology is changing? Everything that we present on the pages of the magazine as new products is literally replaced by more advanced models in a few years, and then completely disappears into history.
Today we have the opportunity to see what the best examples of agricultural machinery looked like almost a century and a half ago, by flipping through the pages of the book by the famous Russian scientist and agronomist Valerian Vasilyevich Chernyaev “Agricultural Implements and Machines. Design, selection and care for them." The publication was published in 1875.
The book tells in an accessible form about the design of machines and implements, the rules for caring for them, and the conditions for selection. And if the machines themselves, made of wood and cast iron, are strikingly different from modern ones, then some advice is written as if it were written today (only ancient letters remind us that this is not so).
About the eternal
“Show me your plow or your car, and I will tell you what kind of master you are,” says a German proverb. How often does a machine not work simply because the owner does not know how to install it correctly! How often machines break down or wear out prematurely due to improper assembly and installation.
You should never buy a machine simply because it works successfully on other farms or from a neighbor. When buying a machine, you must first of all take into account local conditions, such as: the properties of the soil, the quality of the bread, the amount of work that the machine must produce, the high cost of labor, and the profitability of the cost for the farm.
When purchasing cars, the owner should not skimp on purchasing spare parts. There are no and cannot be machines that are not subject to breakage. Having parts in stock, the owner is always protected from work stoppages.
We often hear complaints that the ordered machine was late, for example, a seeder was received for harvesting, or a reaping machine was received for threshing. This sometimes happens because the owner was late with his order, and the car warehouse, not wanting to miss the order, accepted it in the hope that the car would arrive from abroad on time.
Technique
Seed drill
To control the seeder, you need: a boy or girl leading the horses, a worker who controls the front end, and a second worker who monitors the operation of the machine, that is, the progress of the seeder, the grain flow, and the coulters.
Potato planter by James Cultas
It consists of a box on two running wheels, with a mechanism at the back for throwing potatoes into furrows.
Kohlman and Morton potato digger
It consists of a strong iron frame with two wheels at the front and two handles at the back. A hiller is attached to the frame behind the wheels. At the back of the hiller there is one large-diameter wheel, to the rim of which iron fingers are movably attached, forming a rather acute angle with the edge of the rim.
During operation, the front wheels rise, then the machine, having gone deep to the required depth, lifts and turns the soil and potato tubers on both sides with a hiller, and then the following dumps seem to take them into themselves; The tubers are turned outward using a rotating wheel.
Chambers system fertilizer spreading machine
It consists of a box into which mineral fertilizer is poured. At the bottom of the box there is a movable grid that shakes the fertilizer. From this compartment, the fertilizer is captured by the ejection device. The fertilizer enters the spreading board and is then spread across the field.
Howard's scooter
The benefits of this system are represented mainly in the smaller number of servants and in the use of a scooter, which serves to transport the accessories of the steam plow from the field to the estate.
A few words about labor productivity
The book contains a lot of specific practical data, and between the lines it is easy to read about the conditions in which the bulk of the population of peasant Russia lived and at what cost the harvests were achieved.
Raising the field
With a one-horse plow, with one worker, with a furrow depth of 2 ½ - 3 and a width of 4-5 vershok (10-12 furrows per fathom), you can raise from 1/3 to 2/5 of a dessiatine.
A two-horse plow, with one worker, with a furrow depth of 6-7 inches (7-8 furrows per fathom) on soils: heavy - from 2/5 to ½ dessiatine; medium and light – from ½ to 2/5.
The productivity of a plow or roe deer is little more than that of a one-horse plow.
A steam cultivator can plow twice as much as a plow. But you will need: two drivers and two stokers, a plower and two assistants, two workers for transporting water and two for supplying fuel, two for rearranging supporting blocks; from just 10 to 14 servants. Fuel consumption is about 20 pounds of coal per tithe.
Fertilizer spreading
One worker can scatter completely rotted manure from 15 to 20 steam-window carts, not completely rotted (straw) manure - from 12 to 14 carts, and fresh manure - up to 10 carts. One worker can spread mineral fertilizer from 7 ½ to 8 quarters. With a steam-window machine, with 6 pounds of width, one worker and one boy, 3 ½ to 4 dessiatines are scattered.
Landing
One woman can plant about ¼ of a dessiatine with potatoes (under the plow), about 1/8 of a dessiatine (300 square fathoms) with beet seeds, and about 230 square meters with cabbage seedlings. fathoms.
Digging out
Digging potatoes on one dessiatine requires from 40 to 45 people; for harvesting beets (digging, pruning and demolishing) - from 30 to 35 people.
One woman, after digging up potatoes with a plow or other implement, can select medium-sized potatoes, with a good harvest - from 3 to 4 quarters, with an average harvest - from 2 to 3, with a bad harvest - from 1 ½ to 2 quarters.
With a potato digger, with a couple of horses, one worker, 12-15 women, you can dig up tubers on 2/3-1 dessiatine; a potato digger of a complex device, with one worker, a boy, the same number of women and 4 horses, on 1-1 ½ dessiatinas.
I wonder how our descendants will evaluate the achievements of modern agricultural engineering after a century and a half?
The editors would like to thank the chief engineer of the Agrotrade Company, Sergei Ariskin, for the opportunity to touch history and help in preparing the material.