The Disk Harrow 



By DANIEL SCOATES 



Professor of Agricultural Engineering, Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College 



If the plow can be called the king of 

 farm implements, then surely the disk 

 harrow is properly named the queen of 

 the same family. As Longfellow said 

 about man and woman, so can it be said 

 of the plow and the disk, harrow " use- 

 less each without the other." The disk 

 harrow rules from the plains of Montana 

 where disking means saving crops by 

 saving moisture, to the hills of Mississippi 

 where disking means death to erosion. 



There are several kinds of disk har- 

 rows, for instance the cutaway, spading, full disk, etc. But let 

 us pay our attention to the full disk, for this harrow is really 

 the mother of all the rest, which at best are only special tools 

 to be used under certain conditions. This implement should 

 be on every farm, whether the farm be of small acreage, such 

 as that worked by a truck gardener, or of large areas as that 

 of the wheat grower. It has a mission to fulfill that is essential 

 to all farmers no matter what the size. It fulfills more places 

 on the farm of today than any other implement known. It is 

 truly the farmer's general utility implement. 



To the farmer with limited or unlimited capital it should be 

 the second tool for him to purchase, next only to the plow. 

 The former farmer finds this tool able to do the work of many 

 that the latter can afford to buy. For example, it will cut up 

 corn or cotton stalks, act as a surface packer, cover grain that 

 has been broadcasted, grind up clods and pulverize the soil, etc. 

 Then when the capital of the farmer increases and allows him 

 to buy the other tools to help do this work, the disk harrow 

 just falls for its own special duty. 



The disk harrow's special duty is to take the soil after the 



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