SCOURING TROUBLES 147 



One time a plow bottom designer was trying out a 

 bottom in sticky soil. The field was wet on one side 

 and dry on the other. The day was fearfully hot. In 

 the morning it was observed that the plow was scouring 

 successfully in the wettest and driest portions of the 

 field but where the two came together the plow refused 

 to scour on going into the wet portion and also refused 

 to scour on coming out. At noon the plow bottom was 

 cleaned and left standing where the sun had a good 

 opportunity to thoroughly heat it. The plow bottom 

 became very warm and the first two rounds in the after- 

 noon the plow scoured. After that the designer en- 

 countered the same trouble he had experienced in the 

 morning. 



It is a matter of plow history that a Texas farmer 

 devised a pan arrangement back of the mouldboard, 

 well down towards the share, to hold burning corncobs. 

 The difficulty experienced in this device was the lack of 

 uniform heat on all parts of the plow bottom. Those 

 who witnessed the demonstration maintained that the 

 mouldboard scoured where the temperature was hot 

 enough, but failed to scour on other sections of the 

 bottom. 



There may be more in this theory than some of us 

 think at the present time because it is a well known 

 physical fact that heat is the best agent for separating 

 molecules combined by adhesive force. 



Oftentimes failure to scour cannot be attributed to 

 any one cause. It may be a combination of two, three, 

 or more of the conditions mentioned in the second para- 

 graph. The operator must act in cases of scouring 

 troubles very much like a physician diagnosing compli- 

 cations in a case of illness, and then apply the proper 

 remedies for each trouble. 



