PREPARATION AND PLANTING 167 



great deal of fitting for good results. The best tool for 

 pulverizing to a depth of several inches is the disk-harrow 

 Where the land is stony or hard, a cutaway is more effec- 

 tive. On very stony or rough land, a spring-tooth is more 

 practicable than the disk, or the ordinary cultivator can 

 also be used to good advantage. For surface finishing, the 

 spike-tooth harrow and weeder are used for pulverizing 

 and the board drag and roller for further reduction. 



Repacking the soil after deep plowing is an important 

 function of all tillage in preparing the seed-bed. When the 



Fig. 43. — A modern disk-harrow. A tool that pulverizes lihe surface and 

 packs the subsurface at one operation. 



plowing is done long in advance, so that heavy rains may 

 come, little attention need be given to repacking. A fairly 

 compact seed-bed is desirable at planting time, though not 

 so important with corn as with wheat. 



A good method of repacking a loose seed-bed is to use 

 either a subsurface packer, or quite as well a disk-harrow, 

 set straight (no angle to disks) and loaded with sufficient 

 weight to cut nearly through the furrow shce. These 

 tools will pack the bottom of the furrow slice. To pack 



