THE FARMER AT HOME. 201 



ancient sculptures of Egypt, and is known in some form wherever the 

 earth is cultivated. Various forms are given to the harrow, from 

 that of the wedge to the square, and the teeth are adapted to the 

 work it has to perform. The great use of the harrow is in pulverizing 

 the earth, tearing and freeing the soil from the roots of weeds and 

 grasses, and covering seeds when sown. For this purpose, the harrow 

 is preferred to the plough, as the latter usually places the small seeds 

 at too great a depth for certain germination. Many of our best farm- 

 ers, however, prefer the plough to the harrow for covering wheat ; and 

 as this grain, if sown in autumn, germinates better, and endures the 

 winter better to have greater depth of earth than the harrow usually 

 gives, they are probably correct in their preference. The Triangular 

 Folding Harrow, represented in the preceding cut, is one of the best 

 in use. 



HARVEST. In Agriculture, a name which is commonly applied 

 to the season in which grain, hay, and other crops are cut down, car- 

 ried and secured in the barns or stack-yards. The particular period 

 at which the harvest for corn and hay takes place, is sooner or later 

 according to the nature and state of the climate, the qualities of the 

 soil, and the peculiar circumstances of the crops in regard to situation 

 and kind. 



HARVEST MOON. An ephithet applied to those moons which, 

 in the autumnal months, rise on successive nights, soon after sunset, 

 owing to the oblique ascension of the signs of the zodiac, through 

 which the moon is then passing ; which signs, in turning the globe, 

 ascend almost horizontally. 



HAULM. This is a name given to the stalks of beans and peas. 

 When well harvested, these form a very hearty species of fodder. 

 Both of these and all other kinds of straw haulm, should be given as 

 fresh as possible from the flail, for they grow brittle, and lose a portion 

 of whatever sap they possess, by exposure to the air ; if kept long 

 they grow musty also, and in that state are neither wholesome or 

 readily eaten. 



HAY. In most countries where the length and severity of the 

 winters make some provision for domestic animals necessary, grass cut 

 and cured in the form of hay, has always been the cheapest and most 

 valuable. Grass for hay should be cut at the time when the nutritive 

 parts are most developed, and that is in most cases when the plants 

 are forming the seeds, but before they are ripened. In curing it, great 

 care should be taken not to have it damaged by rain, nor should it be 

 long exposed to the sun. In the first case the hay is washed and 

 whitened, and in the last, the leaves crumble and fall off, thus mate- 

 rially lessening the quality of the article for fodder. Clover makes a 

 hay which all animals eat greedily, but it requires more strict pre- 

 caution in curing, and will bear less handling without injury, than any 

 other of the grasses. The hay called rowen, or the second crop, is 

 9* 



