Skim-col′ter plow.
A plow having a small share in advance of the main one, the object being to pare and turn into the furrow the surface herbage and manure, so that the main furrow-slice may cover it over entirely.
The illustration shows
Howard's improvement (
English), with the furrow and land wheel, draft-chain, and
drag-chain, to pull the weeds into the furrow.
Called also a double plow (which see).
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English skim-colter plow. |
It was invented about 1775, by
Mr. Ducket, a farmer of
Surry,
England.
As contrived by him, it was a “thin plate of iron, with a sharp edge fixed horizontally to a common colter, and its use is to pare off the sward in plowing up grass land or meadow, and to turn it to the bottom of the furrow, where the wrest or mold-board completely buries it with earth; it is likewise useful in plowing rough ground, where mud, stubble, roots, or weeds are on the surface, because it sweeps all floating matter to the bottom of the furrow.” —
Monthly Magazine of December, 1797.
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Evaporating-pan skimmer. |