Inventing New Ways of Farming - Nobleford, Alberta
Posted by: 
wildwoodke
N 49° 53.274 W 113° 05.241
12U E 350063 N 5528256
Along Highway 23, north from Lethbridge towards Vulcan, there is a roadside pullout with a sign that speaks to the changes in agricultural practices that were taking place in southern Alberta, with numerous inventions coming from Nobleford, Alberta.
Waymark Code: WMF2Z6
Location: Alberta, Canada
Date Posted: 08/13/2012
Views: 6
The text on the plaque describes the actions that farmers and inventors were taking in Nobleford, Alberta, to maintain soil capability. The text on the plaque is as folows:
Inventing New Ways of Farming
”Soil erosion had begun in southern Alberta by 1915, but it gained speed in the 1920s and reached a peak in the 1930s. This forced farmers to rethink their cultivation practices to halt the destruction of the land.
Significant innovation in developing new cultivation equipment took place in this part of Alberta. In the 1930s, local farmers and inventors perfected ways of tilling the soil that left the surface relatively undisturbed. One of the innovations of such subsurface tillage was Charles Noble of Nobelford. Inspired by the sugar beet lifters he observe in California in 1935, Noble developed a straight blade about 2.5 metres long that cut weeds and stubble below the surface of the soil. At about the same time, other inventors in the Barons area including Otto Wobick, J.B. Turner and Victor Erdman devised systems using large V-shaped blades to achieve the same end. This type of blade became the standard design for subsurface cultivators. Much of this innovative equipment was manufactured locally, most successfully by Noble Cultivators in Nobleford and Victory Manufacturing in Lethbridge. The equipment has been important for successful farming in southern Alberta and has also found wide acceptance in similar environment around the world.”