THE HARROW. 



591 



been furnished by P. A. Brown, Esq. in an in- 

 teresting essay on Indian com. (See Farmer's 

 Cabinet, vol. 2.) It is an interesting fact that 

 the rows of grain on a cob, however numerous 

 or limited, always present even numbers. 



CROP OF INDIAN CORN IN THE U. STATES. 

 We now present the following Table of the 

 quantity of Maize or Indian Corn raised in each 

 of the United States and Territories in the year 

 1839, according to the Census of 1840; to which 

 we add the value of the same in each section, 

 as estimated by Professor Tucker: 



NEW-ENGLAND STATES. 



States. Bushels. Value. 



Maine 9.50,5i8 $712,896 



Ne w-Hampshu-e 1,162,.5~2 79(i,{126 



Vermont 1,119,678 746,652 



Massachusetts 1,809,192 3,356,894 



Rhode Island 450,498 281,.561 



Connecticut 1,500,441 900,264 



Total New-England 6,992,909 $4,794,893 



MIDDLE STATES. 



New-York IB.972,286 $6,857,699 



New-Jersev 4.361,975 2,617,175 



Pennsylvania 14,240,022 8,544,013 



Pelaware 2,099,3.59 1,259,615 



Maryland 8,233,086 4,058,271 



Dist. of Columbia 39,485 19,742 



Total >Uddle States. . . .39,946,21 3 $23,356,515 



SOUTHER.V STATES. 



Viriinia 34..577..591 $17,2g8 795 



North Carolina 23,893,763 9,477,505 



South Carolina 14.722,805 7.361,402 



Georgia 20,905,122 10,462.561 



Florida 898,974 404,243 



Total Southern States. .94,998,255 $44,994,506 



SOUTH-WESTERy STATES. 



Alabama 20,947,004 $8,378,801 



Mississippi 1.3,161,237 5,204,494 



Louisiana 5,9.52.912 2,976,451 



Arkansas 4.846,6:i2 2,42.3.316 



Tennessee 44,986,188 11,246,547 



Kentucky 39,847,120 7,9o9,424 



Total S. West States. .129,741,093 $38,259,033 



NORTH-WESTERN STATES. 



Ohio 33,668, 144 $6,733,629 



Indiana 28,1 5.5,887 .5,631,177 



Illinois 22,634.211 4,526,842 



Missouri 17,332,524 3,482.505 



Michigan 2,277,039 4.55,408 



Wisconsin Ter 379,359 75,872 



lowaTer 1,406,241 281,248 



Total N. West. States. .105,853,405 $21,186,681 



RECAPITULATION. 



New. England States 6,992,909 $4,794,893 



Middle States 39,946,213 23,3.56,51 5 



.•jQuthem States 94,998,2.')5 44.994..5n6 



South-VVestern States. . .129,741,093 38,2.")9,0;« 



North- Western States. . .10.5,853,405 21,186,681 



Total United States. . .377,531,875 $132,591,628 



The average value per bushel for the United 

 States is about 35 cents. 



The blades or stalks of Indian com, as is well 

 known, form an excellent fodder for horses and 

 cattle ; and which, estimating twenty pounds 

 for every bushel of grain, amounts to 3,775,000 

 tons — worth, by Professor Tucker's estimate, 

 $37,750,000. 



Thus, the value of the crop of Indian com in 

 the United States may be stated to exceed one 

 hundred and seventy millions of dollars, and 

 greatlj' exceeding the value of any other crop 

 raised in the country. 



THE HARROW. 



Next in antiquity and usefulness to the plow, 

 in the unplements of Agriculture, is ihe hai-row. 

 This instrument, in some rude form or other, 

 must have existed from a very early period. 

 For, as the preparation of the ground for the re- 

 ception of the seed required one kind of imple- 

 ment, so the covering of the seed with the 

 loosened soil, required another of a difl'orent 

 form. The first and most readily found harrow 

 w^as, probably, merely the branch of a tree; 

 even so late as 1668, Gervas Markham, in his 

 " Farewell to Husbandry," p. 01, gives a wood 

 engraving of a harrow, the directions for the 

 manufacture of which he thus states: "Get a 

 pretty big white-thorn tree, which we call the 

 hawthorn tree, and make sure that it be won- 

 derful thick, bushy, and rough grown." The 

 natives of some parts of India, in fact, still use 

 no other instrument. It was a farther improve- 

 ment to construct a wooden harrow by fastening 

 together the branches of the fir-tree, leaving 

 their partially removed .spurs to serve as teeth. 

 Tiie peasants of some portions of Bussia still 

 employ snch a haiTow. The joining together 



(i2r;i) 



of wooden frames without teeth, as in the 

 llaken of the Belgian farmers, was a later im- 

 provement — then came the addition of wooden 

 teeth, next the use of iron teeth with wooden 

 frames, and, lastly, the construction of most de- 

 scriptions of harrows entirely of iron. 



This instrument, indeed, succeeds to the plow 

 in the natural order of description, and in the 

 uses to which it is applicable. Its purposes are 

 to pulverize the ground which has been moved 

 by the plow, to di.'wugage from it the weeds 

 and roots which it may contain, or to cover the 

 seeds of the cultivated plants, when sown. 

 The form of the plow, as before shown, has been 

 very different in different ages and countries, 

 and there is little resemblance between the rude 

 machines of the ancients and .some of those 

 which are now employed ; but the harrow seems 

 to have been nearly of the same form from the 

 earliest times to which we are able to trace it 

 on sculptures, medals, and other remains of an- 

 tiquity. It is, in fact, a nnich more simple ma- 

 chine than the plow ; yet it is an instrument of 

 great utility in tillage, and, with one exception 



