AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY. 



425 



work witli tliiB new and valuable implement. AVhen we come to speak of tbe 

 barrow we sball have more to say of this implement. 



THE DOUBLE SHOVEL PLOUGH. 



The cloiible shovel plough is an implement only known at the Avest, and is of 

 recent date, say a dozen years. With its use corn culture dated as from a new 

 era. It will always prove a valuable aid on rough ground, among high weeds, 

 for small fields, and for small farmers, who keep but one horse, it cannot be 

 sot aside. With us it has thrown out the old cultivators and one-horse 

 ploughs, which now lie idle in the tool-house. In tbe culture of small plants 

 a shield, something like those on two-horse cultivators, is used. This costs 

 but a triile, and is valuable to protect the young plants from clods, or from be- 

 ing covered up with loose earth. This shield is so made and arranged that 

 tbe most delicate plants are cultivated with this implement. The shovel can 

 be run close to the plant, and thereby save a large amount of hand-weeding. 

 As soon as the plants are strong enough the loose eai'th can be so distin-bed 

 along the row as to cover up and smother out the young weeds, thus entirely 

 dispensing with hand-weeding, which at all times is both laborious and expen- 

 sive. The double shovel plough came of the old shovel plough, usually made 

 of the blank share of the old bull plough, and only used in new lands among 

 roots and stiimps. It was remodelled for the prairie of cast steel. The one 

 became a pair on the same beam, but smaller in size. This was considered a 

 great stride in the field of progress, but was soon eclipsed with a pair of double 

 shovels on wheels, surmounted with a driver's seat. 



THE ROLLER AND THE HARROW. 



The haiTow, as a pulverizer and coverer of the cereals when sown, is of 

 ancient date, and has held out stoutly against innovation, but its days of use- 

 fulness have culminated, and it must hereafter take a less prominent place in 

 the farm economy. Tbe grain drill in English husbandry has been its 

 strongest competitor on the other side of the water, but tbe clean turnip fields 

 or stubble of the smaller grains give place here to cornstalks, small stones, 

 stumps, and other obstructions, rendering the grain drill of little value, and the 

 harrow has mainly had its own way. 



In the clay loams of the prairie autujnn ploughing has been of great value for 

 almost if not all crops. Without fall ploughing spring wheat cannot be grown. 



