Need advice on Farmall for cultivating garden

From there I question the meaning of this terminology most folks like to use calling these tractors 1 row tractors. I ask the question, ONE ROW WHAT? Why in 1 row pumpkins a guy could do the first cultivation with a 300 hp articulated tractor, with 23" duals.

I use to do commercial vegetable production, with Farmalls Super A and 130, and over the years I've used several wheel tread settings to accomidate as many crops as possible. There is a wide variety of vegetables each requiring more or less space to grow. I finally settled in setting my Super A on 52" wheel tread and my 130 on 60" wheel tread. This allowed me to do single rows with either tractor although Super A did most of the single row work. I also have center and rear mount tool bar type cultivators for both tractors. These allow me to line cultivator shanks up for just about any row spacing I want.

I also did two 26" rows with Super A and with 130 I had the option of two 30" rows or three 20" rows. I've also used variations in between. Most of the cultivating equipment I have has been fabricated by myself using modern day ground working tools. The main factor at hand here is the amount of space each vegetable requires for successful growth.

If you would like a closer look, send me an e mail. I can give you photos and an outline on how I acheived this. I have 18 implements or attachments for these tractors, 80% of them being my own fabrications, and I'm still building. By the way I've been doing this for over 45 years. My goal has been to grow vegetables, with as little hand weeding as possible and little or no chemical weed control. It works but you must acheive ground cover with the various crops.

What history has taught us is no matter what the crop, one aims for a canopy or ground cover quickly as possible. This is why I used 20" rows for items like radishes, carrots, onions, beets, etc; 26" rows for turnip, rutabagas, head or romaine lettuce and other quite leafy vegetables; 30" rows for peas, beans, corn, etc. I like 36" rows for cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli.

Vine crops are another matter, you spread them as far apart as they will spread; pumpkins 8' , cucumbers 5', etc. Keep them in rows in the early growth to achive cultivation.

Potatoes are the interesting one, when I was a kid we were planting those in 30" rows, then as yields increased it took more soil to keep them covered, and with that came 36" rows and some farmers are now looking at 42" rows. It's nothing more than keeping them covered. Less sun burned potatoes, plus keeping tops from coming in close proximinity to the potatoes. We have learned that if tops with blight never contact the actual potato the blight will not spread to the potato. Thus we kill the tops before digging or the rains leach blight through soil to the potatoes. Another factor with the potatoes are the long egg shaped russets for baking. Sized, those sell for a premium, and for some strange reason wide rows will increase the percentage of large baking potatoes.

All those tractors are 1 row....the Farmall A is hand lift :super A is hyd. lift :100 is later model.....the cub cuuld be either.....they all will till your garden....I would buy one with hyd, lift..... pick the one you like best.....

If you have a small garden, a couple of acres, the small size of the Cub will come in handy for working most of the land.

The Super A, 100, 130 and 140 on the other hand have a fully sleeved, overhead valve engine, that has roughly the same governed speed range of all the large Farmalls of the 50s. The PTO is 540 and same size standard shaft as all large 540 PTO tractors. They have a two valve hydraulic rochshafts and a remote valve was optional. The 4 speed transmission is very close to same ratios as the Super C, 200, etc. Very simply put this group is capable of working right along with the big boys.

In 1958 my dad bought new a Farmall 130. He already had a 300 and a Cockshutt loader tractor. The 130 pulled a 2x12 plow or the 130 bushel manure spreader and the 300 did the other job, except the 300 plow was 2x14. The very first year my dad and I ever plowed 100 acres, the Farmall 130 did it. We had a farm woodlot and every year we harvested from that. We hired two guys to cut and pile 158 cords of 4' wood, in the fall on 61. We had planned on hauling that wood from the bush with 300 quickly after Christmas, before we sent 300 off for it's first rebuild. The clutch played out on us we ended up pulling the sleds with 130. It pulled the 158 cords from the bush in 113 loads. Quite simply put these little offsets will out pull all other Farmalls as a percentage of their own weight. On a percentage of their own weight pull the Super A will place 1st, Super H -2nd, Super M - 3rd and Super C - 4th. Do you want to give it a test.