60 



ARID AGRICULTURE. 



HARROWING Next to plowing, the principal operation on 



the dry farm is persistent and continuous use of 

 the harrow. The ground should always be har- 

 rowed the same day it is plowed, and if it is new 

 sod-ground, at least, the harrow should be run 

 the same direction as the plow. This harrowing 

 should be kept up often enough to maintain a 

 proper surface mulch for the prevention of the 

 loss of moisture by evaporation. Small grains 

 should be harrowed in the spring and no damage 

 will be done if the harrow is run crosswise of 

 the drills, the harrow teeth kept sharpened and 

 the horses made to walk fast. The main tools 

 to use for shallow surface cultivation is the drag, 

 or spiked-toothed harrow, and the weeder. 

 Every farmer should have one with levers by 

 which he can regulate the slant of the teeth. It 

 does not pay to use a two-horse harrow on large 

 fields. Four-horse tools of all kinds are far 

 more economical. With a three-section harrow 

 and four horses, a man or boy can cover thirty 

 to thirty-five acres per day, which makes the 

 maintenance of summer tillage possible on a con- 

 siderable area of farm land. 



THE DISC 

 HARROW 



The disc is an indispensable farm implement 

 in the West. Discs of fourteen inches diameter 

 do much better and more effective work than do 

 those of larger size. The draft is not so light 

 as is that of sixteen or eighteen-inch discs, but 

 the object of farm operations is to do the work, 



