Beautiful, Beautiful Farm Implements Quiz

Answer: steam

Traction engines were developed from portable engines which were run by a belt, which gave way to steam powered plowing engines. The first gas/petrol tractor was built in 1892 by John Froelich. There are many sizes and varieties of tractors now that much farming has moved from a family run affair to a single person operation due to the versatility of these important farm implements.

Answer: harrow(s)

In farming, a harrow, or set of harrows, is the most common implement used for breaking up bigger pieces of dirt and soil(clods) that are left behind after ploughing. The most common type of harrow is often referred to as a disc harrow or a discer. It's a piece of equipment that the farmer hooks behind a tractor and pulls it over the ploughed land, which prepares the soil for planting of crops.

Answer: stone/rock picker

Stone pickers, also called rock pickers and rock windrowers, are used in landscaping as well. The stone picker digs deeper than the windrower making the soil even higher in quality as the fewer stones and rocks there are in the soil, the easier time crops have when growing solid roots. I remember clearing an 80 acre set of fields once and was thankful I didn't have to pick the boulders by hand!

Answer: manure spreader

I hope everyone got the joke in the original information about the manufacturers 'NOT standing behind this implement'. I can assure you that you don't ever want to stand behind the manure spreader for obvious reasons. It's commonly referred to by farmers as the "honey wagon". Honey wagon is a facetious term also sometimes used to refer to a mobile toilet.

Answer: swather

The swather has a sharp sickle bar (long metal rod that has one rounded side and one side resembling a large razor's edge) that cuts the crops down. Then the crop falls onto a large sheet of canvas or burlap behind the swather. The large collection canvas sheet is also known as an auger conveyor. The conveyor then moves it and arranges it into a windrow with all the stems pointed in the same direction. The swather of today replaced what was known as the binder of yesteryear. Swathers are either self-propelled or can be drawn by the farmer's beautiful tractor.

(Note: Windrow/windrower is a multi-faceted term for almost any row of cut crop, ploughed line, or function of a farm machine that makes rows of hay, crops, rocks, or planting furrows.)

Answer: subsoiler

I have to admit that there were times when I had to take a spade and dig by hand deeply in certain areas around drains and ponds. Thank goodness for the "subsoiler", otherwise there would have been the need to hire hundreds of fools like me who would exhaust themselves digging. Also referred to as a 'mole plough', they are implements that farmers attached to smaller tractors called compact utility tractors.

They are built to go down twelve to fourteen inches, which is four to six inches deeper than the harrow tools can reach.

Answer: seed drill

When planting seeds over large areas, sowing is usually performed by seed drills. The machine can be attached to a tractor or other self-propelled device. It usually has anywhere from six to twenty seed arms depending on which crops or seeds are being planted. As it is carried behind the tractor, it deposits seeds precisely in the ground at preset depths and distances apart and even covers them. That's why when you're driving by planted fields, the crops are in neat rows with the majority of the crops all growing at the same rate to an even height.

(Note: In farming lingo, some machines are "carried", in that they make no contact with the ground, while those that do are said to be "pulled" along the ground.)

Answer: sprayer

The sprayer is a simple, but definitely beautifully important implement. In seasons where poor crops appear to be the predicted outcome, killing insect infestations makes the sprayer most important implement the farmer owns. It is mostly used to spray pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers, but during times of low rainfall or where certain planted areas are water-starved, it can be used to get water to the crops. Most small to medium-sized farming operations own one or two small sprayers that easily attach to any type of tractor or other self-propelled vehicle, such as a four-wheel drive truck.

Answer: irrigation

Irrigation is defined by the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary as; "the watering of land by artificial means to foster plant growth." It has become more and more important in the success of crop farming, but is also vital to landscaping, regeneration, and revegetation of damaged soils and many other purposes. Archaeological findings show that irrigation was developed and used successfully by ancient civilisations such as Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, on through the Roman Empire, and right up until today. Huge irrigation systems are used by large farming operations, without which the operation would certainly fail.

Answer: transplanter

A transplanter can help make or break a crop farmer's season. When delays come up that interfere with early planting or second crop planting, a transplanter can be employed almost anytime to get seedlings into the soil at just the right time. It reduces the needed growing times because the farmer can get the pre-grown plants at the proper stages of growth, thereby increasing his chance at obtaining a harvest at the time it's needed. Of course, once they're planted, this doesn't guarantee that more issues won't arise, but it gives the farmer hope for success.