156 SOILS 



is impossible to guide it so carefully. It always 

 damages the young plants more than a walking 

 cultivator, even when the very serviceable plant 

 guard attachment is used on each side of the row to 

 prevent dirt from being thrown against the young 

 plants. Moreover, a sulky cultivator is consider- 

 ably harder to draw than a walking cultivator. 



Weeders. The essential principle of all the 

 several kinds of weeders is one or more rows of 

 long, flexible teeth which stir the ground a good 

 deal like the teeth of a horse rake; not being 

 curved at the lower end, they do not stir it deeply. 

 The teeth are either round or flat. The more 

 common weeders stir a section of soil from six to 

 nine feet wide; there are also adjustable weeders 

 in two sections which stir from two and one-half 

 to seven and one-half feet of soil. 



Weeders are useful for three purposes to kill 

 very young weeds; to preserve a shallow mulch 

 after the soil has been loosened by a deeper working 

 tool; and to cover broadcasted seed. They are 

 used chiefly for stirring the entire surface of the 

 ground that has been planted to row crops, as corn, 

 potatoes, parsnips and market-garden crops in 



general, doing the same work as the smoothing 

 arrow, but not stirring the soil so deeply. The 

 teeth tear up and kill tiny weeds just appearing on 

 the surface, but since the crop plants are anchored 

 firmly in the soil by deeper roots they readily pass 

 between the flexible teeth without injury. 



A weeder is not effective unless it is used very 

 frequently, or often enough to prevent any weeds 

 from getting sufficiently large to resist the teeth. 

 It cannot be used successfully on stony soil. In 

 some sections, and especially in market gardens, 

 weeders are used very extensively; some truckers 



