What the heck are these?

[davbell22602]

What are these and what were they used for?

[The AP]

The one with the protruding bolts is called an aerator, and is used for creating holes in the dirt.  It just allows water and nutrients to penetrate the soil better.  Your other item is called a tamper.  It is used to flatten down sod after it's been laid.  Nice pieces....

[KC]

Wish we had aerators like that around here.  They are smaller and to rent one to use every few years is $$$$$.  With a yard as big as mine aerator shoes would put me in the hospital!  HA HA!

Agree totally with AP on what they are!

[fancypants]

Cool old sodbuster gear , davbell !

I like it .

Thanks for posting it/them .

[Baulde]

It looks to me like the "Bolts" were there to hold planks onto the wheels. As it looks like there is still a plank attached on it on the back side.
And I would think they would be too thin to be able to withstand hard "work" aerating. Perhaps when all of the original planks were still attached it was used as a type of compactor.

[cogar]

Those look like they might be the “rollers” out of an old sugar cane or sorghum mill that did the crushing n’ squeezing of the juice that was then boiled down to produce molasses.

source of picture = http://www.herculesengines.com/sorghum/default.html

[mart]

That appears to be correct.  They would be very early ones. Have they been discarded somewhere ?? If so I would sure get them, as early farm equipment is very expensive if you can find it. There should be a hitch on them to allow them to be pulled behind a tractor or team.  Would not be heavy enough for a mill. They normally use a stone.

[cogar]

You must be thinking about a grist mill. 

[mart]

Wouldn`t be heavy enough for a syrup mill either I don`t think !! 

[davbell22602]

The one with the protruding bolts is called an aerator, and is used for creating holes in the dirt.  It just allows water and nutrients to penetrate the soil better.  Your other item is called a tamper.  It is used to flatten down sod after it's been laid.  Nice pieces....

There both the same. The wood is missing off the one.

[mart]

I am looking through Asher and Adams Pictorial Album of American Industry to see if there is anything similar. Only about half through though !! Some very old machines in it. Havent found a lot on farm equipment yet !!

[cogar]

Wouldn`t be heavy enough for a syrup mill either I don`t think !! 

Mart, take a look at this picture again.

1stly, you should note is says on the picture - For Horse Power.

2ndly, you should note the heavy verticle shaft on the right side of the picture with the metal plate on top of it.

3rdly, what you don't see is a long wooden pole with one end bolted to that metal plate and the other end of the pole hitched to the horse.

4thly, if you can vison that horse walking round n' round that cane mill then you should be able to vison those 2 big roller in the picture going round n' round also.

And when those 2 big roller are going round n' round ..... ya feed the sugar cane stalks in to them and they will crush them as flat as a sheet of paper,   

CLICK ON  this url and read more about "making molasses", to wit:
 http://www.herculesengines.com/sorghum/default.html


[/quote]

[mart]

Went and looked at the site and all of the pics.  In fact,, they have one from our area,, NE Texas, as well as a horse driven model.  It hasn`t been that long since we had syrup mills here.  Look at the size of the rollers.  Syrup mills were not that big. Also wood is absorbant and not easy to clean. I am not saying that they never made wood rollers,, they may have. But not that wide for a syrup mill !! 

[cogar]

Syrup mills were not that big.

Well now, the size of a cane mill would be determined by the number of acres of sugar cane one was planning on squeezing the juices out of, ...... wouldn't it?
 

Also wood is absorbant and not easy to clean.

You are thinking 21st Century. Why worry about cleaning a cane mill ...... iffen you are going to be boiling (evaporating) the cane juice for 2 or 3 hours ..... out over an open fire with the bugs n' flies n' ashes n' etc. floating n' flying around in the air?

Wood "butcher blocks" were still commonly in use in meat processing plants, butcher shops and grocery stores up until, I think it was, the mid 1970's when some State Health Deps. deemed them unsafe for use. But you can still buy one iffen you want.

[mart]

Juice would stick and condense on rollers and collect dirt, bugs and other items thgat need to be filtered out. Twice as much work and would take longer.  Even in the 1800`s farmers were reasonably clean if selling to the public.