54 THE SOIL OF THE FARM. 



the moisture of the soil is less evaporated than when the 

 land is s^n'ing plowed — a point of tlie first importance in 

 turnip cultivation. It is also much used in jDrejDaring 

 light land just cleared of roots for being sown with sj^ring 

 grain and seeds, as it furnishes a fine mould and keeps the 

 manure near the surface. Fitted with broad points, and 

 worked at a shallower depth, the cultivator is the most 

 effective implement m use for stubble cleaning after har- 

 vest. The substitution, when possible, of the cultivator 

 for the plow is attended with a considerable saving, both 

 of time and labor. 



Cultivators are adajoted for either two or four horses, 

 though the same implement which can be worked with 

 ease by two horses on a light soil or at a shallow depth, 

 will often require three or four horses on stiff land, or 

 where deeper working has to be practised. If the nature 

 of the soil and work admits of it, however, two horses in 

 a light cultivator will do more than half the work of four 

 yoked to a larger implement, as they step more freely and 

 with greater ease to themselves. On light land, a two- 

 horse cultivator should work live acres of fallow to a 

 depth of about six inches, and four acres to a less depth 

 on land where roots have been fed off; on stiff land, or 

 working to a greater depth, a three or four-horse cul- 

 tivator would do about six acres in a day. 



Harrowini? (1) pulverizes the soil to a depth of two or 

 three inches, and reduces to fineness the surface clods and 

 lumps that are left after plowing, cultivating, or digging; 

 (2) it shakes out and separates the weeds that are in the 

 soil; (3) it smooths surface inequalities, by which means 

 the seed is more evenly deiDosited, and is more likely to 

 have a uniform germination ; and (4), after the seed is 

 sown, the harrow buries it at a moderate dei)tli beneatli 

 tlie surface. AVe might add a fifth use ; for it is in many 

 cases a good practice to harrow the winter-sown wheat 



