144 SOILS 



It does not pay to skimp harrowing in the rush 

 of the busiest season of the farmers' busy year. A 

 farmer once told me that every time he went over 

 a certain piece of land with his cutaway harrow, in 

 preparing it for corn, he received more tnan seventy- 

 nve cents an hour for the work when the ears were 

 bushelled. Of course there is a limit, for every 

 soil, to the number of times that it will pay to 

 harrow it. Eight harrowings might give a larger 

 crop than three harrowings, but would the increase 

 be enough to justify the expenditure ? It is worth 

 while for every farmer to find the point where better 

 tillage ceases to be profitable on his soil. When he 

 ascertains this he will be surprised to find how far 

 this limit is beyond the common practice of the 

 neighbourhood. 



KINDS OF HARROWS AND USEFULNESS OF EACH 



Harrowing tools are of innumerable patterns. 

 Most any ingenious farmer can make a harrow that 

 will do good work. There used to be a great 

 many home-made harrows and cultivators, but 

 now the patent implements are so reasonable 

 in price and superior in efficiency that it 

 scarcely pays to get one made by the local 

 blacksmith. 



All harrows and cultivators are of four general 

 types. The first class, represented by the spike- 

 tooth harrow, press the soil down while pulver- 

 ising it. The second class, represented by the 

 spring-tooth harrow, lift the soil while pulverising 

 it. The third class, represented by the Acme 

 harrow, slice the soil and lift and turn it some- 

 what. The fourth class, represented by the cut- 

 away, roll over and cut the soil. There are 



