His attention focused on copper. Copper rich soils retained their ground moisture well, and so he began to experiment with copper ploughs as well as other equipment made from copper. To begin with he merely covered an iron plough's cutting surface with copper sheeting and made tests with this. The tests took place under controlled conditions, dividing the field up into segments, some of which were ploughed with the prevailing iron machinery and some with the adapted copper machinery. The results proved very favorable to the copper, which showed a 17-35 per cent increase in harvest.

A large firm, Farmleiten - Gut Heuberg, near Salzburg, showed an increase of 50 per cent. On a hill farm outside Kitzbuhl tests showed an increase in the potato crop of 12.5 times the quantity sown. Throughout there was an increase in quantity, but also a marked increase in quality. The baking potential of corn was increased, and potatoes were not attacked by the Colorado beetle, though neighboring potato fields ploughed in the more usual way were still attacked, and the nitrogen requirements of the soil were reduced. During 1951-52 controlled tests with the copper plough were made by the Farming Chemical Test Station in Linz. The tests concerned the cultivation of oats, wheat, kohlrabbi and onions. Certain sections were worked only with iron machinery, others with iron machinery and added copper sulphate, and a third area with only copper machinery. In certain tests the copper sulphate was exchanged with pure copper dust. A significant increase was observed in these tests also.

Rumors of these successes spread to farmers around Salzburg where many of the tests had taken place, and they started to call the copper-wonder 'the golden plough'. It was manufactured in large quantities but soon considerable opposition arose from an unexpected quarter.