THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



55 



A WEEDER HARROW FOR DRY FARMS* 



One of the prime requirements for successful dry 

 farming is effective tillage implements which accomplish 

 the greatest results with the least expenditure of labor. 

 A homemade implement (Fig- 1). which has been found 

 very effective in dry farming in Utah, taking the place in 

 a measure of the harrow, disk leveler, and weeder, is 

 described by J. C. Hogenson, of the Utah Experiment 

 Station, as follows: 



"The implement consists of a rectangle, 10 by 4 feet, 



Each knife is 22 inches long and is fastened to the 6-foot 

 pieces at an angle of 45 degrees by means of two bolts. 

 Just behind the 6-foot piece a 3-inch bend is made in the 

 knife, allowing it to drop horizontally below the frame. 

 The front edge of the knife is sharpened. The knives on 

 the front part of the frame, seven in number, slope to the 

 right, while those on the rear part of the frame, seven in 

 number, slope to the left. A lever attachment connects 

 the two 6-foot pieces so that the knives can be raised or 

 lowered at will. One l^-inch steel axle, 6 inches in 

 length, is bolted to the inside of each of the 

 4-foot "ieces so that when the wheels are 

 put on and the man is riding the machine 

 is perfectly balanced and off the ground. 

 Wheels are used only for transporting the 

 implement to the field. The wheels are 18 

 inches in diameter with a 4^-inch face. 

 The seat is placed on a bent spring on the 

 4-foot piece, to which the lever is attached." 

 Two horses can pull the implement 

 readily. The doubletree is fastened to a 

 ring, to which two iron rods coming from 

 the front ends of the 4-foot pieces are at- 

 tached. For summer-fallowed ground two 

 of these implements can be run side by 

 side, drawn by four horses, and manipu- 

 lated by one man. 



HOR/ZOMT/1L PLAN 



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Fig. 1. Simple Form of a Weed Harrow for Dry Farm. 



made of 2-inch planks, 8 inches wide. To the under side 

 of the 10-foot planks are bolted nine knives made from 

 %-inch steel, 24 inches long. The steel is bent 8 inches 

 from one end so that it will drop down behind the plank. 

 The knives are bolted to the plank diagonally at an angle, 

 of 45 degrees by means of two bolts. The bend is about 

 3 inches deep, which allows the knives to 

 work that distance below the surface of 

 the ground. The long part of the steel be- 

 low the bend is sharpened on the front side 

 so that weeds will be cut, this blade being 

 about 13 inches long. The knives on the 

 front slope to the right, while those on the 

 rear plank slope to the left. This ar- 

 rangement makes it impossible for any 

 weeds to be missed, or any part of the 

 ground to remain unstirred. The frame- 

 work levels the land and crushes the clods, 

 while the knives destroy the weeds and 

 loosen the ground to the depth of 3 inches 

 and form a perfect mulch." 



An improved form of this implement 

 (Fig. 2) is described by F'rof. Hogenson as 

 follows: 



"The frame of the implement is made 

 of 4-inch channel steel, 6 by 4 feet. The 

 frame is not made solid, but the 6-foot pieces are fastened 

 to the 4-foot pieces by means of bolts so that the 6-foot 

 pieces can turn freely. To make the frame more solid, 

 two iron-rod braces run diagonally from the front 

 part of one 4-foot piece to the back part of the 

 other. The weeder knives, 14 in number, are made 

 of medium h'ardened steel, 3 inches wide by % inch thick. 



DUG-DRILLED WELLS VERY DAN- 

 GEROUS. 



Almost any community in which wells 

 have been drilled can boast of a number of 

 combination dug and drilled wells. The 

 owners congratulate themselves on their 

 wisdom in utilizing an old dug well fifteen, 

 twenty, or thirty feet in depth, and drilling 

 through the bottom of this to a good flow 

 of deep water. The cost of drilling that 

 twenty or thirty feet has been saved, cer- 

 tainly an economy worth considering. As 

 a matter of fact, this combined dug and 

 drilled well is a particularly dangerous 

 type. It may readily breed malarial fever or even 

 typhoid fever, which is more prevalent in the country 

 than even in the overcrowded cities, in spite of the sup- 

 posed pure water supply of nearly all farming sections. 

 Such a well is all the more dangerous because it is 

 fancied to be safe. Although the water encountered by 



'Compiled from Utah Station Bulletin 112; Deseret Farmer, 6 

 (1910), No. 33, p. 4; Transvaal Agr. Jour., 9 (1910), No. 33, p. 78; 

 Dry Farming, by .1. A. Widtsoe (New York, 1911, p. 313). 



Fig. 2. An Improved Modification of the Weed Harrow. 



i 



the deep well may be perfectly pure at the start, con- 

 tamination may take place almost immediately by the 

 entrance, especially after rains, of seeping water into the 

 open well and thence into the casing of the drilled well. 

 The remedies are obvious. Either the casing should be 

 carried to the surface of the outside ground, or at least 

 above the highest level ever reached by the water, or the 

 open well should be converted into a water-tight system 

 by applying a thick coating of cement over both sides and 

 bottom. (From Water-Supply Paper 223, United States 

 Geological Survey.) 



