cultivator

cultivator, farm implement or machine designed to stir the soil around a crop as it matures to promote growth and destroy weeds.

Horse-drawn cultivators were introduced in the mid-19th century. By 1870 a farmer with two horses could cultivate as much as 6 hectares (15 acres) a day with a machine the shovels (blades) of which straddled the crop rows. In the 20th century, with tractor power substituted for horses, the number of rows a single machine could cultivate grew to equal the capacity of multiple-row planters.

Typical shovels are short, narrow, slightly curved, pointed steel pieces with polished front surfaces that dig into the soil in proportion to the pressure applied. The kind and number used per gang (in a single mounting) depend on crop and soil characteristics. Rotary hoes, used for early cultivation of corn, cotton, soybeans, potatoes, and small grain, have as many as 12 sections, each mounting several hoe wheels, with the whole machine up to 12 metres (40 feet) wide. When the rotary hoe is drawn backward, it gives a treading action that crushes clods and pulverizes stalks.

Spring-tooth weeders have light spring teeth that flick out shallow-rooted weeds without injuring growing plants and can therefore be operated directly over planted rows in an early stage, ridding the field of many weeds as they emerge. Rod weeders are used for weed control in open unplanted fields; their working element is a square-section rod that revolves a few inches below the soil surface. Field cultivators, essentially light plows, are equipped with spring teeth, shovels, or sweeps.