158 DRY LAND FARMING 



top side. (3) On grain from, say, 1 to 3 inches high, save 

 when a crust forms, lest much of the grain should be 

 buried. (4) On grain crops when wet with dew or rain, 

 as then the grain will be more or less injured with the 

 soil that will adhere to the blades, and the weeds present 

 will not be destroyed. The harrow cannot do effective 

 work in killing weeds when the soil or the grain is 

 unduly wet. 



The weeder is used on soils that are so loose as to 

 interfere with the use of the steel harrow, which sinks 

 so deeply into them as to drag the cross-bars more or 

 less along the surface of the ground. The teeth of the 

 weeder may be so adjusted as to regulate the depth to 

 which they will cut. This implement is intended for 

 use mainly, if not, indeed, wholly, on crops that are grow- 

 ing. It may be used on plants too high for being har- 

 rowed with ordinary spike tooth harrows. On large areas 

 four-horse gang weeders are the most satisfactory. 



The sixty-penny spike tooth wooden harrow is in- 

 tended to stir the surface of the soil in grain crops where 

 it is very loose. Its value lies in a considerable degree in 

 the small cost of construction, as it may be made by the 

 farmer himself. The end which it serves may be served 

 as well, if not, indeed, better, by the weeder. Neither the 

 weeder nor the sixty-penny spike tooth wooden harrow 

 has any important mission where the soils are stiff or 

 cloddy, or where they are much inclined to encrust. 



Rollers and their uses. Rollers are of various types. 

 These embrace: (1) The old-fashioned log roller made 

 from the trunk of a tree and in some instances containing 

 two and even three sections. (2) The steel land roller 

 (see p. 160), usually made in three sections and 

 with closed head, which prevents earth from accumulating 

 inside of the drum. These are from 8 to 10 feet long. 

 (3) The corrugated steel roller, also sometimes, made in 

 sections. This roller has somewhat wedge shaped pro- 



