GIANT PLOUGH

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 51, Issue 3110, 24 April 1942, Page 7

GIANT PLOUGH

USED IN ENGLAND’S FIELDS

DESCRIPTION OF OPERATION

A giant trenching-plough, weighing four tons, is now at work in England turning acres of water-logged ground into land which will yield crops. in 1942.

It is an ingenious implement, designed in the North of England chiefly for use in land drainage. The new machine cuts channels to a depth of two feet nine inches at the rate .of 100 yards in four minutes.

The base of the trench 'is cut by a share, while cutters carve the sides, the earth passing up inclined boards to ground level where it is formed into equal ridges on each side. The implement is hauled by a. pair of windlasses, driven by two Diesel engines placed at each end of the field. One windless pulls the implement along while cutting, the other returns it into position for cutting the next trenehThe standard windless employed for this work by the designers has a range of gears with different speeds for different soils, and the winding drum carries 450 yards of steel plough rope. The implement can be hauled by the steam cable engines used for ploughing and cultivating, or by the large types of direct tractors. In the Zuyder Zee reclamation, a machine from the same - designers ent 2,000,000 yards of trenches in 20 months. , v ‘ ' 1 1