Homestead mailing list

[Rob <becida AT comcast.net>]

Date:   Thu, 25 Feb 1999 18:48:42 -0500
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From: Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT roanoke.infi.net>
To: Lee Flier <lflier AT mindspring.com>
Cc: homestead AT listserv.oit.unc.edu
Subject: Re: New pasture & high tensile fences (fwd)
References: <00fd01be60fe$214ff340$1e770418 AT cc1025195-a.chmbl1.ga.home.com>
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Lee Flier wrote:

> >I was hoping you might read my message.  Yep, the worst looking fields
> >have the most slope to them, so gravity and rain have been moving the top
> >soil for many years. They are really not appropriate areas for growing
>
> I think in my last message you may have thought I said you needed some
> "earthworms" but what I said was "earthworks."   (Well, earthworms DO do
> earthworks, but not where they can't survive.<G>)  There's a machine that's
> used out west for restoring native rangelands in places that have become
> desertified due to erosion - usually the erosion in this case was from road
> construction, sometimes very poor agricultural or ranching practices.
>
> The machine is called an "imprinter".  Basically it's a drum shaped like a
> pointed star that is pulled behind a tractor normally.  It makes little
> diamond pits or grooves in the soil - only about 8 inches long and maybe 2-3
> inches deep, but a whole lot of them.  Then seed is broadcast around the
> area shortly before it rains.  The pits retain the moisture and keep the
> seed from washing away.  Whatever seed hadn't landed in a pit soon ended up
> in one.  Nurtured in its little pit by moisture and organic debris that
> washes into it, the seed has a good chance to take root.  The effect of this
> imprinter on deserts made a huge "imprint" on my mind. <G>  It was quite
> stunning.
>
> I'll leave it to some of the mechanical geniuses on the list to come up with
> ways to do this, but I'll bet you could improvise something similar and have
> your oxen or a tractor do the imprint job.  I'm thinking a large metal drum
> that you fill with something (water or sand) to give it weight, and weld
> some metal pieces to it to make the imprint??  Then you would use your oxen
> or tractor to go across the field with the drum rolling behind.  It does not
> actually turn over the soil, it just makes depressions.  Very simple
> concept.  I've done the same thing in small scale with those aerator sandals
> that you buy for aerating your lawn. <G>  I suppose renting a seed drill
> might work too, although it wouldn't trap as much organic matter as those
> longer, wider and shallower depressions.
>
> >My idea would be to apply small doses of
> >fertilizer and hopefully only before a light rain.  It would make zero
> >sense to dump hundreds of pounds of water soluable chemicals on the field
> >and have it wash down the hill with the soil.  I've been thinking of
> >broadcasting some additional ladino clover on these poor fields along
> >with the small fertilizer doses.  Hopefully I can get a few more plants
> >started before things warm up too much. I think the legumes will be the key
> >long term improvement in the fields.
>
> Yes... but the seeds don't require nutrients to germinate, and you are
> getting poor germination.  This is probably because most of the seed ends up
> at the bottom of the hill. :-)  If you don't do some earthworks you are
> probably going to have a hard time getting anything started on an eroded
> slope, fertilizer or none.  You've got to try to rig an imprinter or
> something similar, or else put in some swales that will retain moisture,
> seed, nutrients and organic matter on their way down the hill.  Swaling is a
> great technique if you're going to plant trees to jump start an eroded area;
> it will work somewhat on pasture but not as well as the imprinting does.
>
> >I'm sure earthworms would be a fine addition to the fields, but I don't
> >think I can practically add enough to to this area (about 5 acres).  Also,
> >I would think the worms would just about starve at this point.  There is
> >very little organic matter in the soil, so I'm not sure they would have
> >much of a food source at the moment.
>
> Well, once you can get something to germinate, the worms will probably move
> in on their own.  What I would do is imprint or swale the area, lime it
> pretty well (for the calcium as well as pH considerations), perhaps add a
> small amount of greensand and/or rock phosphate.  Then seed with alfalfa,
> clover and chicory.  There are varieties of chicory that are excellent
> pasture in their own right, but the cool thing about alfalfa and chicory is
> they have very deep taproots even though they are annuals, and so they can
> bring up minerals from the subsoil.  In fact, many of the annual "weeds"
> including chicory are what's known as "first aid" for an ecosystem because
> they're the first thing to move and and repair damaged soil, bringing up
> nutrients and providing mulch that breaks down until other stuff can grow
> there.
>
> Anyway if you do that you'll be well on your way.  Now about getting those
> earthworms to do the rest of your earthworks <G> - earthworms are
> inordinately fond of lime so if you've put quite a bit of that down, they
> will be sure to show up.  If they need a little help, dig up a small piece
> of sod or forest floor from a place on your property that does have them,
> and place it upside down in the middle of your pasture with some lime in
> between.  They'll move down soon enough!
>
> --Lee

>>>tvoivozhd---the "imprinter is easy to make and as cheap as a discarded 
water
heater, the size of which is the biggest your motive power (tractor, mule, 
wife)
can pull.

I've got one about thirty inches diameter and five or six feet long (don't 
know
what it was intended for) that came with the place.  You could make the
footprint attachments from weldments, concrete or cast iron.  Welding 
sufficient
up pieces of plate would be pretty tedious and cutting them out more so.

The best would be to make a wooden pattern to be inserted in the sand of your
cope and drag (sounds obscene, doesn't it?) fire up your little cupola furnace
with layers of iron and charcoal or coke, tap it and (carefully) fill the 
molds
with a cast-iron ladle---yeah you do have to poke pour and vent holes in them
too---and don't forget the two sand/binder inserts to make the holes through
which bolts will fasten the imprinter to the water heater periphery.  Iron 
scrap
is plentiful and currently so low priced no one can afford the gas to haul 
it to
the scrapyard.  Brass or aluminum melted in a bucket foundry would work, 
but the
materials are pretty expensive---and they are really too soft anyway if you 
have
a lot of rocks.

I left one option for last, which all you Oddzark and similarly peculiar 
people
may find attractive---make the imprinters out of concrete.  Yup, any old 
(waxed,
oiled) mold will do, wood, clay, metal---as long as one end of the imprinter 
is
the same contour as the water heater, the other tapered a little, and as 
long as
the two-piece mold has holes top and bottom, through which waxed dowels can be
inserted and later withdrawn after the concrete mix is cured---again providing
two holes for bolt-attachments.  You weld half-inch or larger nuts over holes
drilled in the water tank in whatever pattern of earth imprints you want. Be
sure your mold leaves an indent in the surface of the casting for the nuts
welded on the tank, otherwise your imprinter will not fit tightly to the tank
surface.

Then, weld a short piece of 3/4", 7/8" or 1" bar stock in the center of and
perpendicular to each end of the tank (having first drilled four cotter key
holes---one in the outer end of each piece of bar stock, the other farther 
apart
than the width of your pipe yoke, plus the width of two washers between which
each leg of the yoke rides..

Then fabricate a yoke by welding three pieces of inch and one-half pipe
together, drill a hole in the lower end of each leg to slide over the 
bar-stock
pins---insert flanged nylon or brass sleeve bearings in the holes, flange side
on the outboard sides of the yoke.  Remember the pins should be long enough so
you can slide one leg of the yoke inward to disengage the other leg, after 
which
the other leg can be slid out to remove the yoke entirely (to replace bearings
or for more compact storage)

Lay the yoke down on a flat surface and weld a pipe to the center of 
sufficient
length for your tractor hitch, or as a tongue for a pair of horses.

Weld braces from the two bends of the yoke to the center pipe to take the 
stress
of the heavily weighted roller.

If they aren't already there, put fill and drain fittings in one end of the
water heater tank.  Fill with water and you're ready to go.  It should be
drained after use---otherwise you will have to add anti-freeze for cold 
weather
storage.


You would want to make a pretty rich Portland cement mix for adequate
compressive strength, and gain some tensile strength by mixing in 
polypropylene,
nylon or steel wire reinforcement (Dramix) from your friendly local ready-mix
company..

.