An earth working machine (10), in particular a road milling machine, a stabilizer, or the like, having a milling drum (30) that is mounted rotatably on a machine frame (11) and is populated or populatable on its outer circumference with working tools (31); the working tools (31) to come into contact, during working operation, with the ground that is to be worked to remove it; a drive unit (20) drives the milling drum (30) by means of a drive motor (21); an input drive shaft (33) couplable to the drive motor (21) is attached to the milling drum (30); and a ballast element, constituting a kinetic mass (57), increases the kinetic energy of the milling drum (30). The kinetic mass (57) is couplable to or decouplable from the rotatable milling drum (30), or a rotational member indirectly or directly coupled to the milling drum (30), via a shiftable coupling (55).