Thanks to Delbert Trew for the article on the Go-Devil (Farm Collector, January 2006, page 27). I was introduced to this contraption when I was about 10 years old. I don’t know where it got its name, either.
Rainfall was scarce in west Texas, so seeds were planted in deep furrows to be near the moisture. When the cotton and corn started growing, so did the weeds and Johnson grass. It was difficult, if not impossible, to keep the mules and the cultivator on top of the high ridges for the first plowing. As Delbert points out, the Go-Devil was used to flatten the ridges, undercut weeds and put soil around the plants. This prepared the field for my dad to come along later with a wiggle-tail cultivator.
The photos here are of a P&O Go-Devil that I restored. The other photo is of a Go-Devil was taken in the 1930s at a relative’s blacksmith shop in Crosbyton, Texas.
– Bobby Fitzgerald
201 White Drive
Colleyville, TX 76031
I enjoyed the Go-Devil article by Delbert Trew. I was a little boy about 10 or so who used to run one of these. It now has an honored spot in our garden. It was made by International Harvester Co.
I remember it as a nice, smooth ride with not much to do except pull the lever back to raise the discs on the end and climb off to help it turn easier. At one end of our field was a series of honeybee hives and this made for a quick swatting turn.
In latter years I remember our neighbor had a similar two-row machine he called a “curler” that he pulled behind a John Deere B tractor. He would turn the discs to throw out the first time through, and on the second pass (about a week later) he would throw the dirt in.
I would use the slowest horses and I remember the sights and sounds associated with driving a team way down low in the dirt.
– Charlie Wagner
1316 14th Place
Atchison, KS 66002
(913) 367-4223
