Preparing the Soil for Seeding

Preparing a field for seeding involved many steps.  First, the horses would pull a plow while the farmer walked behind, using the wooden handles to guide the plow blade.  After the field was plowed, the team of horses was hitched to the disk.  This machine had a row of sharp steel disks set at an angle to cut into the plowed area to level the soil.

Next, the horses were hitched to the harrow.  The harrow raked and smoothed the soil in preparation of seeding.  The last step was seeding with a drill.  The box at the back of the seeder was filled with wheat or oat seed.  When the horses pulled the seeder, spikes made furrows just before the seeds fell from the seed shafts.  The seed was immediately covered with soil by strings of chains with large rings.  After the spring rains and warm sunshine, the seed sprouted and grew into heads of golden grain.