no Our Farming. 



can afford to leave a headland at each end to turn on, as he needs 

 with a sulky cultivator. We cannot afford this on our small farm 

 and' valuable land. With a one-horse cultivator we can turn at 

 ends where rows come right up to fence, as nearly as we can 

 plow, and hardly injure the end hills any. A good horse will 

 soon get used to it, if carefully taught, and do almost no injury in 

 getting around. But it is simply impossible to turn in this way, 

 several times in a season, with a team and wheel cultivator, and 

 not do a good deal of damage. It is a common remark that the 

 sulky, or two-horse cultivator, gets along twice as fast, as it 

 works both sides of a row at once. In practice, we do the same 

 with one horse, by having rows straight, as we work up to the 

 plants on both sides of the cultivator, and we do it better than it 

 can be done when riding. I believe I know what I am talking 

 about, too. I have carefully tried the two-horse cultivators. 

 I can use one once or twice to stir soil, and do pretty well, but I 

 can do better the season through with a light one-horse tool, with 

 very narrow teeth. We use the latter two or three times in pota- 

 toes after a sulky cultivator could not get through. There has 

 been great improvement in sulky cultivators, however. The first 

 one I bought had teeth about six inches wide, and it nearly killed 

 a man to guide it with his feet. The last one the Hudson Bicycle 

 has narrower teeth, and is guided by the slightest touch, and 

 conies much nearer to one-horse cultivator work. There has been 

 also great improvement in one-horse cultivators. The first one I 

 bought had three teeth, each five or six inches wide. I soon sold 

 that to a less progressive friend, who didn't want anything better 

 so much as he did something cheap, and got cultivators with five 

 teeth, and they only three inches wide. Then came i^-inch 

 teeth only, and now I have just got one with a larger number and 

 even narrower ones than this. All this has come about regularly. 

 The wide shovels were used before the harrow was common to 

 keep weeds down. They would cover them up more, and they 

 would hill up more. Now, with level culture and clean land, we 

 only want to stir the surface, just harrow it, and let it drop right 

 back level. 



In one respect, however, I do believe the old wide shovel 

 cultivators were best. They moved the soil around more, brought 

 new particles in contact with each other more. I certainly think, 

 from long observation, there is something in this. I would prefer 

 to use wide teeth once in a season. We have them. If using a 

 cultivator on fallow ground, or in preparing for a crop, I would 

 prefer wide teeth for the above reason. I use a scraper in the 

 potato field for the same reason, as will be described later. 

 I spoke of tillage to compact the soil. You understand when that 

 is wise, and when not, doubtless. It is generally best to firm it 

 all you can for winter wheat, provided it is done always when dry. 

 This, with shallow drilling, induces a surface growth of roots 



