150 SOILS 



the land; to tear it and bring it up to the point 

 where an Acme or smoothing narrow can be used 

 to advantage. They are sometimes used as a sub- 

 stitute for the plow, when deep tillage is not 

 necessary or is not practicable; as to tear up the 

 sod in an old orchard that it is proposed to culti- 

 vate, or to fit land for fall wheat after a crop of 

 beans has been harvested. Some Western farmers 

 fit the land in spring for the cereals, using one of 

 these harrows wnich can stir the ground 5 inches 

 deep. 



The great trouble with any one of these rolling 

 harrows, in the hands of a careless workman, 

 is that the disks will be so set that they plow 

 out wide, deep groves, leaving untouched ridges 

 between them, which are lightly covered with loose 

 soil. In order to completely stir the soil and establish 

 an efficient mulch me disks should be set so that 

 they will enter the soil at a wide angle. Rolling 

 harrows are made in two sections or gangs and 

 the gangs throw dirt in opposite directions, 

 usually from the centre outward. This makes 

 it necessary to overlap in order to keep the ground 

 level, but a better way is to level it with a 

 smoothing harrow. 



The comparative merits of the three leading 

 rolling harrows the disk, cutaway and spading 

 is the subject of much needless dispute. Some 

 farmers are partisans for one and some for another, 

 according to the way it strikes their fancy or the 

 way it works on their soils. In general they handle 

 the soil in about the same way. Probably the 

 disk harrow is used more than the other two at the 

 present time, partly because it is less likely to 

 break. The Meeker harrow, which is used by 

 many market gardeners and truck farmers, is 



