Olivers

We just got back from the Ohio Valley Antique Machinery Show or OVAM as they call it now. The grounds have been expanded and they were plowing with horses when I got there. The weather was perfect, one of the best in years and the crowds proved it. The exhibits and grounds have been greatly improved over the years.

An older gentleman had a team of three Belgiums pulling an Oliver two bottom plow converted to one bottom with steel wheels and a horse hitch added to it. I asked him if it was a Raydex bottom or Super Raydex bottom? He looked at it and said "I have no idea, do you?" Everyone gathered around as I looked at the moldboard and said "I think it is the older Raydex bottom because it doesn't have more twist in the moldboard like the Super Raydex does."

I think dad got a Super Raydex plow around 1957. You pulled it about one MPH faster and it threw and broke up the soil a little more. Sometimes you could plant right into the plowed ground but we usually disked it once with a spike toothed harrow behind. If it rained, you had to disk it again to break it back up.

They also had a field for steam engine plowing and farm tractor plowing. Plowing is almost a lost art now and people like to see how it used to be done to produce our crops.

I found Corbin's Cub Farmall beside the tractor pull. There were a ton of Cub's on the grounds but I liked the classic Oliver and Farmalls best. There was a like new 1555 gas sitting beside a 1550 gas. There were other Olivers in the pack but in the middle was a new looking 1586 backed up to new looking 1486. The new red and green paint looked good together.

The crops look good around here after the rains. There was water in the ditches on Hamer Road on the way to Georgetown. At least farmers will have a decent soybean crop around here, I believe.

Ed