Ray Kent

SCS (Soil Conservation Service) Collection

May 1950

This spring photo shows a farmer on his tractor in foreground pulling a manure spreader away from the camera on a stubble field resulting from a previous year's grain harvest. Accumulation of animal manure at the farmstead is loaded into the bed of the machine and hauled to the farm field. There, gears are engaged to activate an endless chain in the machine's bed to move the material to the back where the visible shredder teeth and spinning spiral bar spread the nutrient-rich waste widely on the field, returning the valuable fertilizer to the soil to feed the next crop. The gently rolling cleared field stretches beyond the tractor into the middle ground bounded by mixed spruce /birch forest beyond. A low rounded hill is visible in near background with snow-covered mountains slightly visible in far background at right.

Matanuska Valley, Alaska

Black & White Paper Print, 4" x 5"

Farming#4x-SCS-1