We were interested in exploring near where we found the horseshoe. In this 1960 aerial view, you can see that the lot lines, plotted in the 1970s, did not exactly correspond to the edges of the formerly cropped fields and pastures. The location of our house is the red "x", and the horseshoe was found along the north property line, where it appears a lane between crops droops south.
There was a strong hit with the metal detector in this area. One shovel depth in, metal was hit, and up came a more modern-era artifact, buried about 8 inches. It is about 14.5 inches along the upper edge.
We were fairly certain this was an old tractor part, probably a plow blade, and likely not too old. There were inscriptions in the metal, along with some original paint. It turns out it is a "plow share" the component of a plow that serves as the cutting edge. It is interchangable, depending on soil conditions.
"Chilled" indicates it is a chill cast iron blade. The logo is that of International Harvester, so a share meant for one of their plows. The part number, 0-566, is for cobbled or rocky soil, while the "DS" stands for "deep suck" or a blade used for very hard soil. The soil here is neither rocky nor particularly hard, so maybe the share was swapped out in the field.
How old is it? The land here has not been farmed since before 1976 or so. According to a post on a vintage tractor forum, the shares were no longer stamped with the material after the 1950s. A couple of different sources indicate this version of the logo was used up until 1946. According to a list of paint colors, a light blue paint was used in 1939-1942 -- but I don't know if that applies to the implements or just the tractors and other vehicles.
Some further information gained from a tractor forum noted my dates were a good estimate of time of manufacture, although the share could have been sold much later. However, the types of "bottoms" (the plow share, the moldboard it is attached to, and, depending on the type, other parts like a separate point) on which this type of share were used were much less popular after 1950 when IHC introduced the "Plow Chief" bottom. Forum members indicated this share was likely used on a general purpose or high speed two-bottom plow.
 |
| Generic diagram of a two-bottom, moldboard plow. |
In any event, older than we are, which makes it an interesting piece of the history of the property, dated to when George Simon April (1885-1967) owned the property.
