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ROAOLESS TRACTION LTD·HOUNSLOW·MIDDLESEX·Tel 01·570·6421 JOURNAL and Proceedings of THE INSTITUTION of AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERS AUTUMN 1970 Volume 25 Number 3 Guest Editorial 95 by Ben Burgess Institution Notes 96 Newsdesk 100 Forthcoming Events 104 Publications 106 BSI News 109 The Influence of Cultivations on Soil Properties 112 by N. J. Brown The Effects of Traffic and Implements on Soil Compaction 115 by B. D. Soane Cu Itivations-Discussion (First Session) 126 I ndex to Advertisers 128 Viewpoint 129 N D Agr E Examination Results 1970 131 Institution Admissions and Transfers iii of cover The Front Cover illustration is taken from Figure 7 of the paper by B. D. Soane President: H. C. G. Henniker-Wright, FI Agr E, Mem ASAE Honorary Editor: J. A. C. Gibb, MA, MSc, FR Agr S, FI Agr E, Mem ASAE Chairman of Papers Committee. A. C. Williams, FI Agr E Secretary: J. K. Bennett, FRSA, FCIS, MIOM Advertising and Circulation: H. N. Weavers Published Quarterly by the Institution of Agricultural Engineers, Penn Place, Rickmansworth Herts., WD3 1 RE. Telephone: Rickmansworth 76328 Price: 15s. (75 p) per copy. Annual subscription: £3 0 0 (post free in U.K.) The views and opinions expressed in Papers and individual contributions are not necessarily those of the Institution. All rights reserved. Except for normal review purposes, no part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission of the Institution. 93 A A Materials Handling • Crop Drying • Control of Temperature and Humidity by Ventilation A and Heating • Synthetic Materials in Agricultural Building Construction • Automatic Control • Computing and Strain Measurement • Materials Engineering • Ergonomics ES Tillage • Tractor Performance • Variation in Machine Performance • Soil Mechanics ES and Plant Growth • Land and Water Management • Research on Techniques or Products Irrigation and Water Control Related to Soils 49 PAPERS - 400 TABLES and ILLUSTRATIONS - 450 PAGES FULLY INDEXED Proceedings of First Agricultural Engineering Symposium THE INSTITUTION OF AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERS Penn Place, Rickmansworth, Herts. A A FULLY BOUND VOLUME £9 per copy (post free in U.K.) ES ES Are you all tied-up For ChristmasP Members of the Institution are entitled to wear the Institution tie. As well as being an attractive emblem of Membership in its own right it is T H E also a particularly useful means of recognition at meetings, exhibi­ tions, agricultural shows and other events at which Members are likely to congregate. The tie is of a pleasing design displaying in silver the I N STITUTI 0 N Presidential Badge of office on a back­ ground of navy blue, dark green or wine, according to individual taste. The ties are made of crease resisting and hard wearing terylene, Institution ties are available strictly to Members T I E only and cost £1 each; any number may be obtained in any of the three colours mentioned. Remittances should be made payable to "I Agr E" and crossed. 94 THE INSTITUTION OF AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERS GUEST EDITORIAL 11 was originally imellded that BCII Burgess should be a farmer; indeed he srill [arms rite 500 acres a/heavy lalld where he was born bUl, ill 193/, the engineering ill his blood prol'ed 100 strong and he started the business 1I01V knowlI as Bell Burgess & CompolIY. which is the parent COmpfllI)1 of a small group oj" subsidiaries ill associated (rades. H e was al/ early member 0/ flie I IIS/illl/ioll and helped 10 /orlll 'he East AI/glion Brallch. o[ which he was Chairman ill 195 /- 52. He is curremly a member o/ the Illsl iflllio,,"s COllncil alld serves all the Education alld Papers Committees. He is a past Presidelll of A ./'vl. & T.D.A . alld is currently Presidelll Elect of the Royal NO/folk Agricultural Associatioll. Because he holds slirring opinions 011 'he subject 0/ cultivations- the theme runllillg through this and the next issue 0/ I AG R £- 8ell Burgess was im'ited to contribute this Editorial. able it is to bend with the twist of the plough breast without fracture. In general terms, the frequency of the WORSHIPPING THE fractures depends on the length of the breast and the speed of pl oughing. It is not uncommon to see heavy land SACRED CLOD ploughing where the fractures have occurred every 3-4 ft. by BE N BURGESS , DIP AG RIC, FI AGR E Immediately a ft er the point of fracture, the new section of furrow is thrown on top of the furrow slice preceding it. Perhaps it is because there are as many va riables in the Walking behind a 3-furrow plough when this is be in g done physica l condition of soils as Ihere are methods of applying is a n exhil arating experience but the effect is not so the art of cultivation that any written paper on the subject is beneficial to the farmer. At the point where the furrow li able to annoy some readers and any conference is in slice is thrown, a gap appears, through which the furrow danger of frustrating some of the audience. And a jolly good bottom is clearly vis ible. The effect of this when thing too! Because, whcn this happens, it is certain that a ploughing a 12 in. x 8 in . fu rrow is a contour vari ation of few more people llIay be stimulated to original thought on up to 16 in. between 12 in . centres at eve ry point of the subject. fracture. These groups of high points a nd hollows a ppear at a frequency of nearly one pai r per square yard. If Most speakers at the Institution's J970 Annual Conference surface st ubble culti vation to a uniform depth has been on the subject certainl y stimulated me, because they done, the furrow slice is not so strong and therefore it will appeared to have approached the subject of cultivation with not fracture so frequently or throw so far. the com'entional Mrs Beeton philosophy of 'first make your Wi nter weathering certainly rounds off the peaks a nd clod ', Indeed, I had the feeling that, at any moment, the partly fill s up the holes, but, under the best weatherin g sacred clod wou ld materialise above the chairman's head conditions, contours usuall y still vary as much as 10 in . and that we shou ld then be called upon to do obeisance to il. when spring cultivations begin. In 1964 Hawk ins wrote I agree that makers and vendors of cu ltivating machinery 'The idea that rough winter ploughing will wea ther down should certainly worship the clod. It is their raisoll c! 'etre into a good spring seedbed is wrong'. He could hardly and much of their livelihood .' know there are many farmers have foreseen how very rough heavy land ploughing was who quite deliberately ma ke clods, in the genuine belief that going to be in the 70's. He continues 'Cultivati on there is some vi rtue in this soil condition. I am absolutely then removes most of the wea thered soil from the peaks certain that the generality of farmers in Britain spend a nd puts it into the hollows, exposing a good deal of the millions of pounds each year in first making clods and then unweathered soil ' . He might have saved his typewriter breaking them down again, Q UITE UNNECESSARJLY, ribbon! To obtai n a level seedbed from sllch ploughing In general, clods are made twice a year; once in the late usually requires either an excessive number of passes of light summer and earl y autumn (by plo ughs and deep convent ional culti vati on implements (which make large cultivators) in preparation for autumn sown cereals and, numbers of small clods) or one pass of a heavy cultivator again, in the springtime (by various tined cultivators). (w hic h produces a smaller number of much better ones). The autumn clods in particular are a delight to the farmer The farmer can then chop, erode or pulverise them to on heavy land. When land is dry a nd compacted, ploughs break them down again , with all the tractor passes this and heavy cultivators can only operate at a uniform depth entails. Either way, the benefits of winter weatherin g are if they are a ll owed to penetrate quite deeply. The harder largely lost and the seed is li able to be sown in a n the work and the better the clods, the greater the cost of artificial tilth consisting of much larger soil granules than breaking them down again . And yet equipment now we re on the surface when spring cultivati ons began. But exists which enables the farmer to break up the first few perhaps more damaging tha n the loss of the fr iable tilth inches of the stubble or la yer wi tho ut making clods, which from the surface is that it has changed place wit h some of can be subsequently fo ll owed by shall ower a nd therefore the unweathered soil from below, where it is soon less expensive plo ughing. In this way, by balanci ng the compacted into a pUll y-like layer by the repeated passage depth of surface penetration against the depth of of tractor wheels. At the same ti me, much of the air has subsequent ploughing, the fa rmer can adjust the soil texture been squeezed out of the whole plough layer and a good he req uires fo r hi s autumn seedbed without any further deal of the moisture has been evaporated.

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