Instruments alluded to in this Essay, 1 79 



three, or four feet, with mathematical exactness; so that, 

 wherever it should fail of success, the failure must not be 

 attributed to a defect in the machine, but to the ignorance, 

 or more frequently the obstinacy, of the person who works 

 it. I have tried it with success in all soils : the utility was 

 most apparent, I should without hesitation say, in stroma 

 clays and clayey loams; To obtain a fine tilth on the sur- 

 face of the soil, in the spring of the year, when the plants 

 are growing, is indispensably necessary. This, should au 

 incrustation be forme'd by heavy rains and Sudden drouo-hts, 

 may at all times be secured by the use of the fixed haiTow, 

 scarihcrs, and hoes; The cultivator is another instrument 

 for which the agricultural part of the nation is indebted t(» 

 the mgenious and Very superior mechanical knowledge of 

 the same gentlcnian; It consists of a diagonal beam with 

 si:x(tn narrow shares, and when used withlhese it is called 

 a tillage scarifier : there arc also five broad triangular shares, 

 which may be fixed in the same beam, and with these it 1,^ 

 termed a scuffier : the whole complete forms the cultivator. 

 The scarifier may be used with three, four, or seven tines 

 or teeth, according to the cleanness or foulness, the loose- 

 ness or tenacity of the soih It is calculated to pulverize 

 the soil, and to cleanse it from quitch grass. In short, it 

 m a great measure supersedes the necessity of the plouffh. 

 In tilling land, the objects are to pulverize, to cxpose,"t() 

 cleanse from weeds, and to ridge up for keeping the land 

 dry and healthy, and for sowing. These are the°lesidcrata,- 

 and all of these, except the last, may be most completely- 

 attained, at half the usual expense, by the use of the til- 

 lage scarifier. To secure a garden tilth on the fallows with- 

 out much expense, scarify the stubbles twice, deep and well, 

 soon after harvest; with half a ploughing lay the land on to- 

 three-feet ridges before Christmas; reverse them in Febru- 

 ary, and after barley-sowing sled or harrow down the tops; ' 

 roll and scarify alternately until you have a very highly pul- 

 verized soil seven inches deep. Form vour three-feet rido-cs, 

 and drill your turnips, 'l^hc scufflers^ or broad sharcs,'^3rc 

 to skmi the land and destroy the surface weeds. The fixed- 

 harrow is also a most ejccellent instrument, and, without 

 t.-ie use of any other implement, will prepare laud that was 

 ridged up before Christmas for any spring-corn crop. It 

 pulverizes the surface which has been exposed to the frost 

 i-nir or five inches deep, without turning up the cold steriU 

 land below that depth *. 



The scarifying h^rrt-w is Mdmirr.blv ci'lcuLuccI ro |vilvrrize crors -x 

 an cir.y 5t.;irc of thtir ^u^^^t\^, ,is it wiii ,.u.j in ihf hin. - or cl-^vcn-inct. 

 imtrvali witiiout ir.j-jring the plun'-i^ 



M e AU 



