![Farm](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Farm._Tractor_-_Farm%2C_Ville_LaSalle_BAnQ_P48S1P08968.jpg)
A cultivator is a piece of
agricultural equipment
Agricultural machinery relates to the mechanical structures and devices used in farming or other agriculture. There are many types of such equipment, from hand tools and power tools to tractors and the countless kinds of farm implements that they ...
used for secondary
tillage
Tillage is the agricultural preparation of soil by mechanical agitation of various types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning. Examples of human-powered tilling methods using hand tools include shoveling, picking, mattock work, hoein ...
. One sense of the name refers to frames with ''teeth'' (also called ''shanks'') that pierce the soil as they are dragged through it
linearly
Linearity is the property of a mathematical relationship (''function'') that can be graphically represented as a straight line. Linearity is closely related to '' proportionality''. Examples in physics include rectilinear motion, the linear re ...
. It also refers to machines that use
rotary motion
Rotation around a fixed axis is a special case of rotational motion. The fixed-axis hypothesis excludes the possibility of an axis changing its orientation and cannot describe such phenomena as wobbling or precession. According to Euler's rota ...
of disks or teeth to accomplish a similar result. The rotary tiller is a principal example.
Cultivators stir and pulverize the soil, either before planting (to
aerate
Aeration (also called aerification or aeriation) is the process by which air is circulated through, mixed with or dissolved in a liquid or other substances that act as a fluid (such as soil). Aeration processes create additional surface area in ...
the soil and prepare a smooth, loose
seedbed
A seedbed or seedling bed is the local soil environment in which seeds are planted. Often it comprises not only the soil but also a specially prepared cold frame, hotbed or raised bed used to grow the seedlings in a controlled environment into l ...
) or after the crop has begun growing (to kill
weed
A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, "a plant in the wrong place", or a plant growing where it is not wanted.Harlan, J. R., & deWet, J. M. (1965). Some thoughts about weeds. ''Economic botany'', ''19''(1), 16-24. ...
s—controlled disturbance of the
topsoil
Topsoil is the upper layer of soil. It has the highest concentration of organic matter and microorganisms and is where most of the Earth's biological soil activity occurs.
Description
Topsoil is composed of mineral particles and organic matt ...
close to the crop plants kills the surrounding weeds by uprooting them, burying their leaves to disrupt their
photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can later be released to fuel the organism's activities. Some of this chemical energy is stored i ...
, or a combination of both). Unlike a
harrow, which disturbs the entire surface of the soil, cultivators are designed to disturb the soil in careful patterns, sparing the crop plants but disrupting the weeds.
Cultivators of the toothed type are often similar in form to
chisel plow
A chisel is a tool with a characteristically shaped cutting edge (such that wood chisels have lent part of their name to a particular grind) of blade on its end, for carving or cutting a hard material such as wood, stone, or metal by hand, stru ...
s, but their goals are different. Cultivator teeth work near the surface, usually for
weed control
Weed control is a type of pest control, which attempts to stop or reduce growth of weeds, especially noxious weeds, with the aim of reducing their competition with desired flora and fauna including domesticated plants and livestock, and in natur ...
, whereas chisel plow shanks work deep beneath the surface, breaking up
hardpan
In soil science, agriculture and gardening, hardpan or soil pan is a dense layer of soil, usually found below the uppermost topsoil layer. There are different types of hardpan, all sharing the general characteristic of being a distinct soil layer ...
. Consequently, cultivating also takes much less power per shank than chisel plowing.
Small toothed cultivators pushed or pulled by a single person are used as
garden tool
A garden tool is any one of many tools made for gardening and landscaping, which overlap with the range of tools made for agriculture and horticulture. Garden tools can be divided into hand tools and power tools.
Hand tools
Today's garden to ...
s for small-scale gardening, such as for the household's own use or for small
market garden
A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumer
A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or s ...
s. Similarly sized rotary tillers combine the functions of harrow and cultivator into one multipurpose machine.
Cultivators are usually either self-propelled or drawn as an attachment behind either a
two-wheel tractor
Two-wheel tractor or walking tractor (french: motoculteur, russian: мотоблок (motoblok), german: Einachsschlepper) are generic terms understood in the US and in parts of Europe to represent a single-axle tractor, which is a tractor with ...
or four-wheel
tractor
A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most common ...
. For two-wheel tractors, they are usually rigidly fixed and powered via couplings to the tractors' transmission. For four-wheel tractors they are usually attached by means of a
three-point hitch
The three-point hitch (British English: three-point linkage) is a widely used type of hitch for attaching ploughs and other implements to an agricultural or industrial tractor. The three points resemble either a triangle, or the letter A. Three-p ...
and driven by a
power take-off
A power take-off or power takeoff (PTO) is one of several methods for taking power from a power source, such as a running engine, and transmitting it to an application such as an attached implement or separate machine.
Most commonly, it is a sp ...
(PTO).
Drawbar hookup is also still commonly used worldwide.
Draft-animal power is sometimes still used today, being somewhat common in developing nations although rare in more industrialized economies.
History
The basic idea of soil scratching for weed control is ancient and was done with
hoes or
mattock
A mattock is a hand tool used for digging, prying, and chopping. Similar to the pickaxe, it has a long handle and a stout head which combines either a vertical axe blade with a horizontal adze (cutter mattock), or a pick and an adze (pick matt ...
s for millennia before any larger or more complex equipment was developed to reduce the
manual labour
Manual labour (in Commonwealth English, manual labor in American English) or manual work is physical work done by humans, in contrast to labour by machines and working animals. It is most literally work done with the hands (the word ''manual'' ...
and to speed the work. The notion of ganging several hoes together and applying
draft animal
A working animal is an animal, usually domesticated, that is kept by humans and trained to perform tasks instead of being slaughtered to harvest animal products. Some are used for their physical strength (e.g. oxen and draft horses) or for t ...
power to drag them led to
harrows
In agriculture, a harrow is a farm implement used for surface tillage. It is used after ploughing for breaking up and smoothing out the surface of the soil. The purpose of harrowing is to break up clods and to provide a soil structure, call ...
, which while newer than the hoe are still quite ancient. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
developed, a proliferation of cultivator designs proceeded. These new cultivators were drawn by draft animals (such as horses, mules, or oxen) or were pushed or drawn by people, depending on the need and expense.
The powered rotary hoe was invented by Arthur Clifford Howard who, in 1912, began experimenting with rotary tillage on his father's farm at
Gilgandra, New South Wales
Gilgandra is a country town in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia, and services the surrounding agricultural area where wheat is grown extensively together with other cereal crops, and sheep and beef cattle are raised. Sitting at ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. Initially using his father's steam tractor engine as a power source, he found that ground could be mechanically tilled without soil-packing occurring, as was the case with normal
plough
A plough or plow ( US; both ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses, but in modern farms are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden, iron or ...
ing. His earliest designs threw the tilled soil sideways, until he improved his invention by designing an L-shaped blade mounted on widely spaced flanges fixed to a small-diameter rotor. With fellow apprentice Everard McCleary, he established a company to make his machine, but plans were interrupted by
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. In 1919 Howard returned to Australia and resumed his design work, patenting a design with 5 rotary hoe cultivator blades and an internal combustion engine in 1920.
In March 1922, Howard formed the company Austral Auto Cultivators Pty Ltd, which later became known as Howard Auto Cultivators. It was based in
Northmead, a suburb of
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, from 1927.
Meanwhile, in North America during the 1910s,
tractor
A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most common ...
s were evolving away from
traction engine
A traction engine is a steam engine, steam-powered tractor used to move heavy loads on roads, plough ground or to provide power at a chosen location. The name derives from the Latin ''tractus'', meaning 'drawn', since the prime function of any t ...
–sized monsters toward smaller, lighter, more affordable machines. The
Fordson tractor
Fordson was a brand name of tractors and trucks. It was used on a range of mass-produced general-purpose tractors manufactured by Henry Ford & Son Inc from 1917 to 1920, by Ford Motor Company (U.S.) and Ford Motor Company Ltd (U.K.) from 1920 to ...
especially had made tractors affordable and practical for small and medium
family farm
A family farm is generally understood to be a farm owned and/or operated by a family; it is sometimes considered to be an Estate (land), estate passed down by inheritance.
Although a recurring conceptual model, conceptual and archetype, archet ...
s for the first time in history. Cultivating was somewhat of an afterthought in the Fordson's design, which reflected the fact that even just bringing practical motorized tractive power alone to this market segment was in itself a milestone. This left an opportunity for others to pursue better motorized cultivating. Between 1915 and 1920, various inventors and farm implement companies experimented with a class of machines referred to as ''motor cultivators'', which were simply modified horse-drawn shank-type cultivators with motors added for self-propulsion. This class of machines found limited market success. But by 1921
International Harvester
The International Harvester Company (often abbreviated by IHC, IH, or simply International ( colloq.)) was an American manufacturer of agricultural and construction equipment, automobiles, commercial trucks, lawn and garden products, household e ...
had combined motorized cultivating with the other tasks of tractors (tractive power and belt work) to create the
Farmall
Farmall was a model name and later a brand name for tractors manufactured by International Harvester (IH), an American truck, tractor, and construction equipment company. The Farmall name was usually presented as McCormick-Deering Farmall and l ...
, the general-purpose tractor tailored to cultivating that basically invented the category of
row-crop tractor
A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most common ...
s.
In Australia, by the 1930s, Howard was finding it increasingly difficult to meet a growing worldwide demand for exports of his machines. He travelled to the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
, founding the company Rotary Hoes Ltd in
East Horndon
East Horndon is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of West Horndon, in the south of the borough of Brentwood in Essex in the East of England. It is situated just south of the A127 road near Herongate. The village Church of Al ...
, Essex, in July 1938. Branches of this new company subsequently opened in the United States of America, South Africa, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand. It later became the holding company for Howard Rotavator Co. Ltd.
The Howard Group of companies was acquired by the
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
Thrige Agro Group in 1985, and in December 2000 the Howard Group became a member of Kongskilde Industries of
Soroe,
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
.
In modern commercial agriculture, the amount of cultivating done for weed control has been greatly reduced via use of
herbicide
Herbicides (, ), also commonly known as weedkillers, are substances used to control undesired plants, also known as weeds.EPA. February 201Pesticides Industry. Sales and Usage 2006 and 2007: Market Estimates. Summary in press releasMain page fo ...
s instead. However, herbicides are not always desirable—for example, in
organic farming
Organic farming, also known as ecological farming or biological farming,Labelling, article 30 o''Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on organic production and labelling of organic products and re ...
. When herbicidal weed control was first widely
commercialized in the 1950s and 1960s, it played into that era's optimistic worldview in which sciences such as chemistry would usher in a new age of modernity that would leave old-fashioned practices (such as weed control via cultivators) in the dustbin of history. Thus, herbicidal weed control was adopted very widely, and in some cases too heavily and hastily. In subsequent decades, people overcame this initial imbalance and came to realize that herbicidal weed control has limitations and
externalities
In economics, an externality or external cost is an indirect cost or benefit to an uninvolved third party that arises as an effect of another party's (or parties') activity. Externalities can be considered as unpriced goods involved in either co ...
, and it must be managed intelligently. It is still widely used, and probably will continue to be indispensable to affordable food production worldwide for the foreseeable future; but its wise management includes seeking alternate methods, such as the traditional standby of mechanical cultivation, where practical.
Industrial use
To the extent that cultivating is done commercially today (such as in
truck farming
A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. The diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically from under to so ...
), it is usually powered by
tractor
A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most common ...
s, especially row-crop tractors. Industrial cultivators can vary greatly in size and shape, from to wide. Many are equipped with hydraulic wings that fold up to make road travel easier and safer. Different types are used for preparation of fields before planting, and for the control of weeds between row crops. The cultivator may be an implement trailed after the tractor via a
drawbar; mounted on the
three-point hitch
The three-point hitch (British English: three-point linkage) is a widely used type of hitch for attaching ploughs and other implements to an agricultural or industrial tractor. The three points resemble either a triangle, or the letter A. Three-p ...
; or mounted on a frame beneath the tractor. Active cultivator implements are driven by a
power take-off
A power take-off or power takeoff (PTO) is one of several methods for taking power from a power source, such as a running engine, and transmitting it to an application such as an attached implement or separate machine.
Most commonly, it is a sp ...
shaft. While most cultivator are considered a secondary tillage implement, active cultivators are commonly used for primary tillage in lighter soils instead of plowing. The largest versions available are about wide, and require a tractor with an excess of (PTO) to drive them.
Field cultivators are used to complete
tillage
Tillage is the agricultural preparation of soil by mechanical agitation of various types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning. Examples of human-powered tilling methods using hand tools include shoveling, picking, mattock work, hoein ...
operations in many types of arable
crop
A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydroponic ...
fields. The main function of the field cultivator is to prepare a proper seedbed for the crop to be planted into, to bury crop residue in the soil (helping to warm the soil before planting), to control weeds, and to mix and incorporate the soil to ensure the growing crop has enough water and nutrients to grow well during the growing season. The implement has many shanks mounted on the underside of a metal frame, and small narrow rods at the rear of the machine that smooth out the soil surface for easier travel later when planting. In most field cultivators, one-to-many
hydraulic cylinder
A hydraulic cylinder (also called a linear hydraulic motor) is a mechanical actuator that is used to give a unidirectional force through a unidirectional stroke. It has many applications, notably in construction equipment (engineering vehicles ...
s raise and lower the implement and control its depth.
Row crop cultivators
![Sweep cultivator on the back of a John Deere 5220 tractor](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Sweep_cultivator_on_the_back_of_a_John_Deere_5220_tractor.jpg)
The main function of the row crop cultivator is weed control between the rows of an established crop. Row crop cultivators are usually raised and lowered by a
three-point hitch
The three-point hitch (British English: three-point linkage) is a widely used type of hitch for attaching ploughs and other implements to an agricultural or industrial tractor. The three points resemble either a triangle, or the letter A. Three-p ...
and the depth is controlled by gauge wheels.
Sometimes referred to as ''sweep cultivators'', these commonly have two center blades that cut weeds from the roots near the base of the crop and turn over soil, while two rear sweeps further outward than the center blades deal with the center of the row, and can be anywhere from 1 to 36 rows wide.
[http://www.animaltraction.net/Harnessingandimplements/HarnessingandImplementsintro.pdf ]
Garden cultivators
Small tilling equipment, used in small gardens such as household gardens and small commercial gardens, can provide both primary and secondary tillage. For example, a rotary tiller does both the "plowing" and the "harrowing", preparing a smooth, loose seedbed. It does not provide the row-wise weed control that cultivator teeth would. For that task, there are single-person-pushable toothed cultivators.
Variants and trademarks
![Rotary tiller compact](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Rotary_tiller_compact.jpg)
Rotary tillers are a type of cultivator. They are popular with home gardeners who want large vegetable gardens. The garden may be
tilled
Tillage is the agricultural preparation of soil by mechanical agitation of various types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning. Examples of human-powered tilling methods using hand tools include shoveling, picking, mattock work, hoein ...
a few times before planting each crop. Rotary tillers may be rented from tool rental centers for single-use applications, such as when planting grass.
A small rotary hoe for domestic gardens was known by the trademark Rototiller and another, made by the Howard Group, who produced a range of rotary tillers, was known as the Rotavator.
; Rototiller: The small rototiller is typically propelled by a petrol engine rotating the tines, some have powered wheels, though they may have small transport/level control wheel(s). To keep the machine from moving forward too fast, an adjustable tine is usually fixed just behind the blades so that through friction with deeper un-tilled soil, it acts as a brake, slowing the machine and allowing it to pulverize the soils. The slower a rototiller moves forward, the more soil
tilth
Tilth is a physical condition of soil, especially in relation to its suitability for planting or growing a crop. Factors that determine tilth include the formation and stability of aggregated soil particles, moisture content, degree of aeration, s ...
can be obtained. The operator can control the amount of friction/braking action by raising and lowering the handlebars of the tiller. Rototillers often do not have a reverse as such backwards movement towards the operator could cause serious injury. While operating, the rototiller can be pulled backwards to go over areas that were not pulverized enough, but care must be taken to ensure that the operator does not stumble and pull the rototiller on top of themselves. Rototilling is much faster than manual tilling, but notoriously difficult to handle and exhausting work, especially in the heavier and higher power models. If the rototiller's blades catch on unseen subsurface objects, such as tree roots and buried garbage, it can cause the rototiller to abruptly and violently move in an unexpected direction.
; Rotavator: Unlike the Rototiller, the self-propelled Howard Rotavator is equipped with a gearbox and driven forward, or held back, by its wheels. The gearbox enables the forward speed to be adjusted while the rotational speed of the tines remains constant which enables the operator to easily regulate the extent to which soil is engaged. For a two-wheel tractor rotavator this greatly reduces the workload of the operator as compared to a rototiller. These rotavators are generally more heavy duty, come in versions with either a petrol or diesel engine and can cover larger areas. The
trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...
ed word "Rotavator" is one of the longest single-word
palindrome
A palindrome is a word, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as the words ''madam'' or ''racecar'', the date and time ''11/11/11 11:11,'' and the sentence: "A man, a plan, a canal – Panam ...
s in the
English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
.
; Mini tiller: Mini tillers are a new type of small agricultural tillers or cultivators, used by farmers or homeowners. These are also known as power tillers or garden tillers. Compact, powerful and, most importantly, inexpensive, these agricultural rotary tillers are providing alternatives to four-wheel
tractor
A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most common ...
s and in the small farmers' fields in developing countries are more economical than four-wheel tractors.
;
Two-wheel tractor
Two-wheel tractor or walking tractor (french: motoculteur, russian: мотоблок (motoblok), german: Einachsschlepper) are generic terms understood in the US and in parts of Europe to represent a single-axle tractor, which is a tractor with ...
: The higher power "riding" rotavators cross out of the home garden category into farming category, especially in Europe, capable of preparing 1 hectare of land in 8–10 hours. These are also known as ''walk-behind tractors'' or ''walking tractors''. Years ago they were considered only useful for rice growing areas, where they were fitted with steel cage-wheels for traction, but now the same are being used in both wetland and dryland farming all over the world. They have multiple functions with related tools for dryland or paddys, pumping, transportation, threshing, ditching, spraying pesticide. They can be used on hills, mountains, in greenhouses and orchards.
See also
*
Cultivator No. 6
Cultivator No. 6 was the code name of a military trench-digging machine developed by the British Royal Navy at the beginning of World War II. The machine was originally known as White Rabbit Number Six; this code name was never officially recog ...
*
Pubert SAS
Pubert is a French company based in Chantonnay, a town of the Western French region of Vendée. The company is the leading manufacturer of tillers in the world.
History
The Pubert Company was founded in Chantonnay, France in 1840. Its headquarte ...
References
External links
Terminology and Definitions for Agricultural Tillage ImplementsAgricultural Machinery Management DataField cultivator patent{{Garden tools
Agricultural machinery
Australian inventions
Gardening tools
Tractors