HARROWING, CULTIVATING 143 



they are sometimes seeded without being har- 

 rowed, but this practice is rarely profitable. 

 The plowed ground must be loosened and pul- 

 verised so that the seeds will touch moist grains of 

 soil on all sides, instead of lying between clods and 

 lumps. The chief object of harrowing, then, is to 

 make a fine and mellow seed-bed. In so doing it 

 increases fertility, prevents the evaporation of soil 

 water, makes the soil warmer and accomplishes 

 all the other benefits of tillage. That the harrow 

 teeth fertilise and water the soil as well as fine it, 

 is a figure of speech that is based upon realities in 

 the field. Harrowing may also be a means of 

 covering the seed and of killing weeds. 



Better Harrowing Needed. The necessity for 

 harrowing more thoroughly than is commonly 

 done needs to be repeated and reemphasised. 

 Some farmers are content with one or two liar- 

 rowings, or merely enough to break up the largest 

 lumps and enable the seeds to germinate. But 

 that is not enough. We harrow to increase the 

 feeding area of the roots all through the season by 



fiving them finely divided soil in which to spread. 

 Ve harrow to put the soil in the best possible con- 

 dition to catch and hold the rains. We harrow to 

 warm the soil, to aerate it and to promote the 

 activity of the germ life that is so essential to its 

 fertility. This means that the ground should be 

 gone over more than is necessary to merely break 

 up the lumps so that the seeds will germinate. It 

 means harrowing and cross-harrowing, three times, 

 four times, six times if necessary ; or until all of the 

 upper four or five inches of soil upturned by the 

 plow has been made as nearly like an onion 

 bed in mellowness as the texture of the soil will 

 permit. 



