Rotary hoe
Azada rotativa (rotary hoe)
- Date
- 1912-1920 · confidence medium
- Place
- Gilgandra, New South Wales, Australia
- Credited to
- Arthur Clifford Howard
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A machine with L-shaped blades on a horizontal shaft that spin and break up the soil in one pass, preparing a seedbed without ploughing. Howard began developing it in 1912 and founded his company in 1922.
Howard developed a prototype for farm use, but the concept of rotary tillage had been tried earlier (19th century, in the UK and US); his contribution was a practical, marketable machine.
What it led to
- rototillers and garden and farm tillers
- reduced-tillage farming
- exports of Australian farm machinery