1846.] European Agriculture. - 257 



with weak, inefficient horses, and whose pace was consequently 

 sluggish, the other half with an adequate strength and swiftness 

 of animal power, we shall find the former will be rough and un- 

 finished, the latter comparatively firm and level, and completed in 

 what \vould be called a husbandry-like manner. Scarcely any 

 thing in farming is more unsightly than the \vavy, serpentine 

 traces of inefficient harrowing. The generality of harrows ap- 

 pear too heavy and clmnsy to admit of that despatch without 

 which the work cannot be Avell done; and though it is evident 

 that different soils demand implements of proportionate weight 

 and power, yet, for the most part, harrows have been rather over 

 than under weighted, particularly when employed after a drill, or 

 to bury seeds of any kind. 



" Harrowing has been so long regarded as an operation which 

 must be attended with considerable horse-labor, that attention 

 does not appear to have been sufficiently turned to the inquiry 

 whether this labor might not be greatly reduced, by lightening 

 the instruments with which it is performed. Many would be sur- 

 prised at the moment of reduction of which seed-harrows, at 

 least, are capable, and, where land is clean, to see how effectively 

 a gang of very light small-toothed harrows may be used. 



" Having noticed, in some parts of Norfolk, the perfect manner 

 in which seed corn is covered by a common rake with wooden 

 teeth, a friend of mine constructed a gang of harrows on the fol- 

 lowing plan, and he states that it proved the most popular and 

 useful implement of the kind to the farm." 



We have now dwelt as long as is proper upon the published 

 parts of Mr. Coleman's tour. We may not have made the most 

 judicious quotations from the work. We have, however, we be- 

 lieve, given those facts which are calculated to give our readers 

 a glimpse of the objects of the mission, the manner and spirit in 

 which it is executed, and the dress in which it is clothed, for the 

 reader's use. We feel no desire to exhibit our skill in fault find- 

 ing, or in criticism. We care not whether Mr. Coleman jileases 

 the nobility of England or not; we have a perfect confidence not 

 only in the author's good taste and sense of propriety, but in his 

 judgment to select and fulfill the object of his mission. We have 

 no sympathy with those who feel disappointed in the work as 

 now published, and who complain and say that the objects of the 

 tour have failed ; we believe no such thing. The work, incur 

 opinion is one of the most important contributions to agriculture 



Vol. III., No. n. 19 



