Old Ploughs museum site Ae Forest
The photograph is courtesy of the family of George Dey. Check under ‘Groups’ and George Dey Collection.
A view of some of the ploughs and ploughing equipment on show near the Ae Management Training Centre. These redundant machines which had been trialled and discarded as ploughing programmes reduced and practices changed are a memorial to the tool that really made it possible to quickly established large areas of forests in the uplands of Scotland from the 1940s onwards.
Lying on its side next to camera is the rotary mouldboard plough which effectively mixed a top layer of peat with lower mineral soils – beneficial effect was short lived; next is a double furrow deep peat plough with a working depth of 60cms; the red head just behind is a large double tine plough head with a working depth of the tine down to possibly 75cms; furthest behind is the deep draining Humpy plough which, with its curved bean to allow the large upturned furrow to pass across, successfully drained many thousands of hectares of wet hill land and enabled the trees to grow successfully.
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Groups: Forestry Areas, George Dey Forestry Collection, Tractors Ploughs and Drainage Machines
It was the worst Winter for years and the River froze right over, I had to dig down through the ice to get water every day.
Parkgate Forestry Ploughs were made further along the same road.
Comment left on 16 December 2012 at 17:57 by Jimmy Thain