AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 243 



rotary motion, leaving the land in the most perfect condition 

 to receive the seed, whatever that may be. 



Ploughing is really but the first of a series of means 

 towards producing a perfect seed-bed. That the plough is 

 not going out of use in this country is proven by the fact 

 that, in 1879, there were made 1,326,123 ploughs. 



Next to the plough in the preparation of the soil comes the 

 harrow in all its present different forms ; though practically 

 the harrow in most common use is much the same in princi- 

 ple and construction with that used thousands of years ago, 

 — a frame of wood, filled with teeth of wood or iron projecting 

 through the frame, long enough to comb down the irregu- 

 larities of the furrow left by the plough. Special forms of 

 a harrow designed to accomplish certain work more effect- 

 ually have proved very successful, — among which stand 

 prominent the disc harrows of "Randall" or "La Dow," 

 now well known, which for cutting up freshly ploughed sod, 

 or for working manure into any ploughed ground, are inval- 

 uable and worthy the highest commendation. So also is the 

 "Thomas Smoothing Harrow,'' in which the teeth, many in 

 number but small in diameter^ are inclined backward and so 

 arranged in the draught that every inch of the ground is 

 stirred. One important use of this implement is in harrow- 

 ing grain, corn or potatoes, soon after they are up ; the 

 ground is lightly stirred and the starting weeds uprooted or 

 covered and destroyed, while the crops are not seriously 

 disturbed. About 30,000 of these are annually made. 



It is impossible to mention all the harrows, or the seed- 

 sowers and planters which are next in succession in til- 

 lage. Where wheat is grown in large quantities, the general 

 practice is to drill it in with ingeniously constructed machin- 

 ery. Other grains are commonly sown broadcast ; potatoes 

 dropped by hand ; Indian corn planted by a dropping ma- 

 chine, often drilled in, and on small farms still planted by 

 hand with the ever-faithful hoe, which also does great ser- 

 vice in the subsequent cultivation of the crop. We make 

 about 80,000 seed-drills and planters annually. Horse- 

 hoes and cultivators of innumerable forms, 320,000 in num- 

 ber, bear a large part of the cultivation of hoed crops and 

 are all of very modern use, but now, in the cultivation of 



