An agricultural implement for scooping or stripping a layer of topsoil and picking it up intact to lay it down as a cover growth or lawn elsewhere.
The dryland sodder strips the top layer of soil and vegetation (sod, soil, shrubs and small trees) from areas to be surface mined and places it intact over reshaped areas. The soil layer is scooped into the sodder and transported to the reclamation area. It is removed by tilting and shaking the bucket while slowly moving the loader backward... A conveyor system is being developed for the bottom of the dryland sodder to aid loading and unloading the sod strips...1978, Annual Report, USDA Forest Service:
[...] I juſtly formed this Concluſion to my ſelf; That whatever Philoſopher or Projector can find out an Art to ſodder and patch up the Flaws and Imperfections of Nature, will deſerve much better of Mankind, and teach us a more uſeful Science, than that ſo much in preſent eſteem, of widening and expoſing them (like him who held Anatomy to be the ultimate End of Phyſick.)1704, [Jonathan Swift], “Section IX. A Digression Concerning the Original, the Use and Improvement of Madness in a Commonwealth.”, in A Tale of a Tub. […], London: […] John Nutt, […], →OCLC, page 175: