CULTIVATION OP CROPS. 



65 



and covers the seed. For fining the surface of the soil, the 

 harrow is one of the 

 very best implements 

 we have, and with 

 the large number of 

 different kinds for 

 choice, we can select an 

 implement adapted to 

 almost any kind of 

 soil. Amongst the more 

 generally used are the 

 zig-zag, disc, and pul- 

 veriser. The back-tooth harrow is a good implement. 



Home-made Harrow. 



In 



it the teeth have a slope backwards, and do not clog with 

 grass, &c. 



Bury the Weeds, or Rot Them in the Manure Heap. 

 Numberless analyses of Australian soils, made with the 

 special object of tracing the changes going on, afford 

 evidence of the need of saving all the vegetable matter we 

 can. In all Ike analyses made not a single soil has been 

 found which has, or ever appears to have had, any vegetable 

 matter in it that could be burned with advantage to the soil. 

 Grass-burning in pastoral districts has been a fearful cause 

 of destruction on the grazing lands ; and stubble-burning 

 has been only the less destructive on farming land by 

 reason of the smaller quantity burned. If exception could 

 be made to these terribly suggestive facts it might be 



found 



extraordinarily 



their capacity to absorb 



ich grazing soil from 

 near Coopernook, Man- 

 ning River, heavy soil 

 from near Gunnedah, 

 Namoi River, and rich 

 volcanic and limestone 

 loam from Tumut Plains. 

 Each of these is rich in 

 vegetable matter ; upon 

 that the fertility of the 

 soil is dependent; and 

 after testing them closely 



rain-water, and to hold 



