Hi,
>
>710 is upside down in the top two photos, but correctly oriented in the
>bottom photo. This thing sits at the free end of a sickle bar mower for
>hay, or a reaper cutter, or a combine cutter head. It helps the bar
>float with changes in the ground's surface and separates what will be
>cut with what will not be cut. The front point pivots to aid in the >floating. > >
>Thanks,
> Roger Haar (a different RH)
> Tucson, AZ
>
>
This is correct. It is called a shoe. Sometimes there is one on both ends of the cutter bar. The one near the pittman arm is the inside shoe and the other is the outside or land shoe.
To early farmers, any dividing of a field was "laying off a land." Laying off a smaller tract was done for a couple of reasons. At the rate of a few acres per day, it might me all a farmer could till before the planting or growing season passed. And, secondly, some progress could be seen in plowing a smaller tract; the psychological benefit of seeing an end to a task.
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