ROLLING, PLANKING, AND HOEING 187 



good for several purposes. He is not satisfied to 

 use a spike-tooth harrow after the plow when a 

 heavy disk harrow is needed to chop up the sod. 

 He does not like to get along with a walking plow, 

 however excellent work it may do, if a sulky plow 

 will do the work as well, and easier and cheaper. 

 To get each part of the farm work done in the best 

 possible manner and at the least cost is the point 

 that should decide the question of what kind of 

 tools and how many. Five might do the work after 

 a fashion; but if ten would do it enough better, 

 quicker, easier and cheaper to more than pay for 

 the cost of the other five it is economy and profit 

 to have them. One-plow-one-harrow-one-culti- 

 vator farmers are the kind that say "farming 

 don't pay." 



Just how many tools it will pay to buy is, there- 

 fore, a problem for each farmer to decide. He 

 should not stint himself on those that are really 

 necessary; a few bushels more corn per acre, the 

 result of fitting the land better with a good tool, 

 will pay for it in a single season. He should be 

 careful not to indulge himself in tool getting, with- 

 out sufficient justification for the outlay, however 

 pleasurable that is to the man who loves to handle 

 soil. First of all he will need to consider the kind 

 of soil to be handled. Certain tools do better 

 work on heavy soils than on light soils ; if the farm 

 has several types of soils, as is most likely in north- 

 ern United States, it may pay to keep tools for each. 

 The crops to be grown will also determine to a 

 large extent the types and number of tools needed. 

 Finally the size of the farm or the area of the crop 

 will determine whether it will pay to buy a certain 

 useful tool to do a certain amount of work. This 

 must be the deciding point. Often it would be 



