GIANT PLOUGH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 May 1942, Page 4

GIANT PLOUGH

RECLAIMS LAND FOR BRITAIN’S 1942 HARVEST. A giant trenching plough weighingfour tons is now at work in England turning acres of water-logged ground into land which will yield crops next year. . It is an ingenious trenching 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 a hundred 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 windlass pulls the implement along when cutting, the other returns it into position for cutting the next trench. The standard windlass 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 Zuider Zee reclamation, a machine from the same designers cut two million yards of trenches in 20 months.