One of the oldest buildings in the oldest planned community in the South Okanagan, Bassett House has housed a museum for close to 40 years. At the south end of the parking lot for the Okanagan Falls Museum, also known as the
Bassett House Museum, is a small and growing collection of farm implements, donated about a week ago by a farmer from Oliver, about 15 or so kliks south of Okanagan Falls. The present collection consists of only of a Cockshutt No. 21 walk behind plow, a two bottom Plow, likely a McCormick-Deering, and this single gang disc, but it's young and expected to grow considerably in the future.
This little six or seven foot single gang disc bears no identifying marks, so its heritage shall remain unknown. With an operator's seat, this disc was certainly designed for horse drawn use, though it could well have been tractor drawn in later years. The two levers in front of the operator's seat are used to vary the angle, or the aggressiveness, of each of the left and right gangs.
One hundred years ago a disc such as this would have been used both for weed control and for burying crop residue with minimal soil disturbance. In more recent times, however, it has been revealed that even minimal soil disturbance is not desirable. Soil disturbance can harm soil structure and burying crop residue leads to wind and water erosion of the soil. As a result of recent research, today, for the enlightened farmer, discs, as well as cultivators, have gone the way of the Dodo Bird.
