Disc Harrow (Dinky Toys 322)
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Disc Harrow (Dinky Toys 322).jpg) (i)
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Arch Two , Area 21 Classic Dinky Toys (John Durrant Collection) |
| Shelf 2
1951 - 1971 |
A red, vehicle-hauled Disc Harrow (Dinky Toys No.322, pulling two rows of concave discs beneath yellow panels. The piece was originally numbered 27h, and was produced between 1951 and 1971.
Disc harrows are used to loosen soil and chop the remains of past crops to ease ploughing.
Disc harrows
A harrow has the same primary purpose as a plough - to turn over and aerate the soil, to break up clods and roots, and improve aeration and drainage before seeding - but where a plough typically handles deep cutting and may only have one blade (and can leave a bit of a mess), a harrow has an array of tools that cut less deeply, work with the top layer of soil, and leave a smoother result.
Harrowing is often used as a final soil treatment after ploughing, to break up and smooth out the clods raised by the ploughing process.
There are a number of different harrow designs, for instance, spike harrows have arrays of tines that that act as a coarse curved comb that rake the soil.
A disc harrow operates more like an array of shallow plough blades, with the curve of each angled disc mimicking the angled concave surface of a conventional ploughblade to cut, lift and "flip" the upper layer of soil. The harrows have paired arrays with oppositely-angled tilts, so that the harrow doesn't drift to one side when it's pulled, and the use of freely-rotating disc blades helps to avoid the blade-arrays getting clogged.
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