How do you layout a field?

First, to clarify some regionalisms: A headland was the first round where you threw the dirt together and made a hump that you tried to knock down with the disk later. A dead furrow was the last round where you threw the dirt apart, leaving a ditch you kinda filled in by making an extra pass with the back of the plow raised.

Plowing was something you did every year, so each year you put the headland where the dead furrow was last year. With the old pull plows, it was easy to level the plow for that first and last round with one of the two levers out front. With the later semi-mounts, most guys didn't bother.

So, let's assume a relatively large, rectangular field: First you decide how far you want to drive across the ends before returning up the other side. In theory, you could lay out one headland in the center of the field and just work around that, but then you're doing a heckuva lot of deadheading across the ends. With experience, you know about how many rows each plow pass will 'erase'. At about the number of rows 10 - 12 passes will take, you dropped the plow and set off across the field, either following last year's row or sighting a fencepost or some other landmark at the other end, driving as straight as you could (it was a point of pride to plow straight, just as it was to plant straight).

Then, at about 4 times that distance, you laid out another headland, and so on across the field. Again, because you plowed that same field every year, you knew how best to lay out each field and you probably knew where last year's dead furrow was (maybe you marked it with a flag). Makes sense to do the layout all at once so you didn't have to do it in the dark. Maybe Dad did the layout so son/hired help could do the rest.

Back to your first headland and plow clockwise around it until you get to the fence. If you were clever, you could offset that first headland so you left some ground unplowed equal to the distance at each end from the end of the furrow to the fence. Over to the next headland and plow the same number of clockwise rounds. That should leave ground unplowed between the first and second lands equal to the width of each. Reverse direction and plow the space between lands counter-clockwise until the last two passes meet- ideally in a perfect dead furrow (which was almost never perfect). An extra pass at high speed with the back of the plow raised would do a decent job of filling in the dead furrow. Repeat across the field.

Plowing the ends was no fun, as you had a rough ride across where you raised the plow, and the ground was pretty compacted. Best to drop down a gear to give yourself and the tractor a break. Again, if you have planned things well, you have unplowed dirt at each side equal to the ends (your ends are straight across, aren't they?), and you could make passes around the field until you got to the fence on all four sides, ending at the gate. You made those passes throwing dirt toward the fence one year and away from it next year.

For small or odd-shaped fields, it's easiest to throw dirt out up each side and just work counter-clockwise inside to an equally irregular dead furrow. Next year you probably can still see the dead furrow and work inside-out.

A prideful plowman wants his entry and exit straight, so overdrives his turns slightly to compensate for slop in the hitch. No excuse for 'fishhooks' at the ends! Time your drop so the first bottom 'bites' just as the tractor's furrow wheel is sliding into the furrow.

Clear as mud?