This machine was made sometime before 1900, its make is unknown but it was used on the Lamport/Coleman farm, in the Village of Hobart.
Although farmers used manure as a fertilizer on all their fields, it is low in phosphate and phosphate is needed to help release the manure’s nutrients to the soil. Super Phosphate was spread on the fields to supplement the manure as a fertilizer. If ‘poverty’ grass grew on the field it meant that the field needed fertilizer.
Delaware County is plagued with soil that is quite acidic. To ‘sweeten’ the soil (i.e. make the soil more alkaline) lime was added to the soil. The farmer could tell if the soil needed it by what was growing on the field. Wild strawberries, among other plants, meant that the soil was acidic.
This machine was donated to the Hobart Historical Society by William and Barbara Coleman.