Someone had managed to gather together about 60 farm implements and wagons and has decided to put them on display. The vast majority of the farm implements are very old horse drawn machines. The collection includes plows, cultivators, harrows, discs, mowers, corn planters, farm wagons, potato diggers and planters, a hay loader, a manure spreader and two road graders. The display is immediately north of the highway and appears to be accessible 24/7/365, at no charge.
As a result of researching plows in general and two way plows in particular, I have just experienced a humbling moment. It turns out that I have misnamed a number of plows. Read the following:
The number of plowshares distinguishes a sulky plow from a gang plow. Any single-bottom riding plow is called a sulky plow. Two-way riding plows with only one bottom in use at a time are also known as sulky plows. Riding or walking plows with two or more bottoms are called gang plows.
This doesn't affect the name of this plow, as it remains a sulky plow, but all previous wheeled two bottom plows I've waymarked will need to be renamed. Alas...
Though many would consider this a John Deere for its color, the color looks to us to say "Oliver". The Oliver Chilled Plow Works was established by James Oliver in 1853, becoming the South Bend Iron Works on July 22, 1868, only to again become the Oliver Chilled Plow Works in 1908. Oliver was for many years the premier plow maker, owning the majority of the plow market by 1910, due primarily to their advanced design which worked well in heavy soils. The secret was in creating plow shares which would scour in heavy, wet clay soils instead of loading up with soil. This sulky looks to be quite a bit newer that that (1910), possibly as late as the 1930s or 1940s, though the basic design changed little for several decades. Many little improvements crept into the design, leaving the basic design much as it was when first developed.
While most of the wheeled plows here are two bottom, this is a single bottom plow.