Although there are no clear identifying marks on this implement, this one-row walking cultivator may have been made by the Moline Plow Company of Moline, Illinois. As with the other cultivators in Stuhr Museum's exhibit, this tool played an important role in the crop growing process. If a farmer did not cultivate between the rows of crops, the weeds and other unwanted plants could overwhelm the crop plants. Those unwanted plants would consume nutrients and potentially smother the crop plants, especially early in the growing season.
Farmers typically cultivated their fields three to five times, depending on weather, soil, conditions, and the persistence of unwanted plants. Many cultivators were built to pass over crops that were about a foot-and-a-half tall, giving those crop plants a great opportunity to thrive when the unwanted plants were no longer being dug up.
As you can see by looking at the six examples in Stuhr Museum's exhibit, cultivators came in a variety of shapes and sizes. You might group them into a number of different categories: one-row and two-row, tongued and tongueless, walking and riding, shovel and disc. If you venture out to Railroad Town at the museum, you might even notice a double-shovel, a predecessor to the cultivator, near one of the old cabins.
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