Do You Know What This Is?

I had the main herd hanging out in the little field near the bridge. It was my joy to round up all the mothers and calves and encourage them to move to another field.

As I was walking along the fence line that runs along the county road, I tripped over the small round top of this cast-iron, 100 lb., piece of equipment. The small top, about 4 inches across, barely stuck out of the ground and was located under maple and elderberry trees. One this metal monster, there is writing embossed on the wider side (left in this picture) Pat June 1913 (I assume this was the patent date).

I grabbed the ever-present shovel that rides on the hood of the John Deere Gator, and started digging. Mike had to lift it and set it in the back for transport because it is too heavy for me to move.

Over the years, since the purchase of the farm in 1978, we have found several of these monsters buried around the place. I believe the count is now six. They are all  not quite all the same size and shape, but they all have nearly the same size small round top at about 6 inches across,  and none of the pieces have been found close to each other.

Feel free to comment guess to this post if you would like to chime in. If you are absolutely sure you know what this is, I would like to know how you know about this piece of equipment!

The answer will be posted in a couple days…