Tending the Soil

    
     Isn't that an impressive vehicle? It's a fertilizer spreader and it's 50% truck, 50% sprayer, and 50% tricycle. (That's right, 150%. That's what you get in the realm of the spectacular.)

     Each boom contains a bunch of these, it's basically the wide attachment for your vacuum, but in reverse. A massive (much like everything else about the machine) air pump blows air down each of those tubes. That air is blowing strong enough to carry little pellets of fertilizer in it.

     These are the little pellets. They have all kinds of things that the crops need to grow most effectively. Nitrogen, Phosphate, Potash and lots of other things. The company that analyzed the soil is called Stukenholtz and I've directed the link to the page that lists their services.
     All that happens in preparation for this:

     Behold, the S-Tine Cultivator. Starting from the front of the tractor, there is a large tank. This tank contains a carefully chosen assortment of herbicides. In order to stop weeds before they become a problem, the farmer has identified which weeds are already a problem and ones which will be. He then chooses the herbicides which best address these weeds and that's what goes in the tank. From there it travels back to the cultivator.

     If you look up close in the very front of the implement you see a square tube with spray nozzles. That's where the herbicide comes out, as I'm sure you guessed. Next come three banks of S-tines. Remember those? They're springy so as they pull through the ground they flick, breaking up the crust that tends to form on open dirt.

     Next comes a single row of tines. Tines are are basically a big fat nail. It does much of the same job as the S-tines, but as they're rigid, they're more insistent that the dirt be broken. Lastly comes the roller, though it's more of a mixer. As you can see it really mixes.

     This is what it's shaped like, kind of like the beaters on the mixer in your kitchen. And it makes sense as they both do the same job.
     Working together, the parts of the S-tine cultivator break up the soil and then mix in the fertilizer and herbicides. All this makes the soil in prime condition for when it's going to be planted. That will be real soon.