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Charlie: There are a number of factors, both for and against either plow. First and foremost was plowing quality, the mounted hitches of 50-60 years ago could not hold a candle to the old trailer plows on plowing quality. Secondly tractor wheel tread setting was far more crucial for mounted plows. Often times mounted plows required wheel tread setting farmers didn't particularly want the rest of the year. For the mounted plow was ease of movment from one field to another. Draft controlled hitches allowed tractors to pull more plow with less trator weight. I guess it's been more a case of which factors the individual valued more. Those values did change over the years. I remember once leaving a new Farmall 1066, cab and air along with a new 5x16 semi mounted plow, complete with setup instructions on seat of tractor, along a fence row. Both my dad and a neighbor were long time trailer plow men, to them a new mounted plow was nothing more than scrap metal. Mounted plows weren't even worthy of discussion, in their books. 5 days later they had burnt 100 gallons of diesel fuel and were looking for more. They wouldn't even give me a chance to plow that fall. Their main argument was cab, they had both plowed for over 40 years in Canadian Novembers on open station tractors. This may have been their last kick at the can, and they both told me I'd have 40 years to plow in a cab. What's interesting about this, they always came for a tractor for plowing their garden after that. They always managed to show up when the semi mount was hitched to a tractor. Interesting as I had a Farmall 130 with 2x12 mounted plow, ideal for garden plowing. I guess it wasn't fast enough.
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