LEGUMINOUS CROPS. 



551 



The first ploughing is usually given in December or January. It is 

 generally found a good practice to precede the sowing of lucerne with a 

 cereal crop. The working tends to produce a good tilth and also enables the 

 character of the soil to be known accurately. As soon as the crop is off, the 

 Btubble land is ploughed 6 or 7 inches deep, the disc plough being used, 

 though there is n<> reason why a mouldboard imple'ment should not do quite 

 as will. A Bhorl fallow of two or three months is allowed before a louvred 

 grader or smoother is put over the land, across the plough, to produce an 

 . veil surface. 



A type of scoop called the buckscraper, shown in Fig. I , is also very~useful 

 for this purpose. If it is followed by a leveller made on the lines indicated 

 in Fig. 3, a very satisfactorily graded Held can be made to result. 



Fig. 1.— The Buckscraper. 



As is usual with scoops, the weight of the loaded buckscraper is carried 

 on steel-shod runners, and the blade is of steel. When empty it is 

 usually drawn in the position shown in Fig. 1, the ends, which may be 

 also shod with steel, serving as runners. A strong rope is attached to 

 the end of the handle, and the operator brings the implement into position 



5 ec TiON 



Blade 4 *L 

 drawr. -to pn edge 

 6V curved shghfly downwards 



Fig. 2. — Section of Buckscraper. 



