488 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



The Acme harrow is a most excellent implement on soils which 

 are comparatively free from stones and rubbish. The plow-like 

 action of its blades serves to pulverize the surface soil, to spread 

 the loose mulch evenly, and it leaves a most excellent seed-bed. 

 The cutaway or disc harrows may be either beneficial or of ab- 

 solute injury. If the discs are so set that they cover but a por- 

 tion of the surface with the mulch, they leave a ridge exposed to 

 the action of the wind and sun, and the rate of evaporation is 

 greatly increased. The discs should be set at such an angle that 

 the whole surface shall be stirred or covered. Their chief value 

 lies in their cutting and pulverizing action on clay soils, but as 

 conservers of moisture they are inferior to the Acme or the 

 spring-tooth. Soils which need the disc harrow should generally 

 be gone over again with some shallower tool. 



The mellower the soil the lighter should be the work done by 

 the harrow. On most heavy orchard soils it will be found neces- 

 sary to use the heavy tools, like the spring-tooth and disc har- 

 rows, in the spring, but if the land is properly handled it should 

 be in such condition as to allow the use of a spike-tooth or 

 smoothing harrow during summer. Tliis light summer harrow- 

 ing, as shown in the cut on the title page, should be sufficient to 

 keep down the weeds, and it preserves the soil mulch in most ex- 

 cellent condition. With such a tool, and on land in good tilth, a 

 man can harrow ten or more acres a day. 



Cultivators and conservation of moisture. — The action of culti- 

 vators is not materially different from that of the spring-tooth 

 harrow. The size of the teeth should be regulated by the work 

 to be performed, a many small-toothed implement being prefer- 

 able to a few large teeth, where the object is to conserve mois- 

 ture. It must be borne in mind that in a dry time the less sur- 

 face exposed the less will be the evaporation. If a large toothed- 

 implement is used to destroy grass and weeds, then it should be 

 followed by a smoother to reduce the ridges and prevent loss of 

 moisture. Ridge culture is only allowable when the object is to 

 relieve the soil of moisture on bottom lands where the water 

 comes very near the surface, or for some special crops, where a 

 high degree of warmth is required early in the season. In these 



