180 



H AR 



11 A R 



The increasing scarcity and 

 dearness of wood, especially in the 

 older settlements in tins conntry, 

 affords an unanswerable argunier.t 

 in favour of such a piece of good 

 husbandry. 



GUINEA CORN. "Guinea 

 Corn, or Hulcus Sorghum L. an 

 exotic vegetable, growing on the 

 coast of Africa : its stalks are large, 

 compact, generally attaining the 

 height of 7 or 8 feet, and produc- 

 ing abundance of grain. It may 

 be easily raised in sheltered situ- 

 ations, especially in exhausted 

 hot-beds and other loose soils, 

 where its seeds should be sown 

 early in the spring. This plant is 

 cultivated in South-Carolina, and 

 yields from sixty to eighty bushels 

 of seed to an acre. It is often 

 mowed green for the purpose of 

 soiling cattle. 



" The seed is used for feeding 

 poultry, and sometimes hulled by 

 beating in a mortar, boiled and 

 eaten with milk, and is said to be 

 equal to rice ; but it is not valued 

 highly for makii.g bread, which 

 made of this material is black and 

 heavy." 



H. 



HARROW, a kind of drag used 

 in tillage. By drawing a harrow 

 over ploughed ground, the clods 

 which remain after ploughing, are 

 broken, and the ground made mel- 

 low and fine. It serves also to de- 

 stroy weeds, by pulling out their 

 roots, and exposing them to the sun 

 and wind. And it is used to cover 

 seeds newly sown. The wood of 

 a harrow should be the strongest 



and best seasoned while oak. 

 There are two kinds of harrows 

 conunonly used ; the square har- 

 row, and the bifurcate harrow ; the 

 former is for old and clear ground, 

 the latter for land that abounds with 

 stumps of trees and other obsta- 

 cles. The square harrow is armed 

 with sixteen, or with twenty five 

 tushes, or teeth. The sharper 

 these teeth are, the more they will 

 pulverize the soil. If they be 

 steeled at the points, they vviil hold 

 their sharpness the longer, and stir 

 the ground more effectually. And 

 the cost of doing it so little, that it 

 is surprising to see that it is so gen- 

 erally neglected by our farmers. 



it has been the common prac- 

 tice in this country to place the 

 teeth in the joints of the square 

 harrow. But this has a tendency 

 to weaken the joints, and the teeth 

 are more apt to become loose. — 

 They should be placed in the solid 

 parts between the joints. The 

 best way to fasten them is, with 

 shoulders under the harrow, and 

 nuts screwed on above. 



Some use harrows with wooden 

 teeth, but they are of go little ad- 

 vantage to the land, unless it be 

 merely for covering seeds, that they 

 may be considered as unfit to be 

 used at all. The treading of the 

 cattle that draw them, will harden 

 the soil more, perhaps, than these 

 harrows will soften it. 



The bifurcate, or triangular har- 

 row, is either a fork of natural 

 I growth, or else made artificially. — 

 ' The artificial one is commonly 

 strongest, when well made, as tim- 

 ber may be chosen which is snffi- 

 \ ciently tough and strong. The 

 two legs may either be lapped to- 



