That was the last field operation I got to learn. Too much speed and too much danger with all the spiked wheels right behind. If I remember correctly I was in the picture just for posterity and did not actually get to ride hoeing until much later.

I later had an interesting moment using a mounted type hoe and that same tractor. Some how it caught a rock about the size of a softball  and flipped it up and over the rock guard on the hoe. It came crashing down about 2 inches away from my head. From that point on I always wore a hard hat when using the rotary hoe. I liked using the smaller and lighter utility tractor for hoeing as so many times you needed to get the hoeing done before things got too hard and dry like cement and you needed something light to get across the softer spots.  

 Grandpa talked of a neighbor that had his boy riding with him while working ground the first time over after being plowed. The boy was riding on the cultipacker somehow (= stupid) and fell off. He was very lucky though, they were on the outside pass around the field and the cultipacker ran over him but his head and most of his body was in the dead furrow as it passed over him. His one eye was always not focused quite right because of the accident but he lived a normal life. In fact he died just a few years ago after having a heart attack.