TILLAGE AND TILLAGE TOOLS 3 1 



started. The spring-tooth harrow is an important tool 

 among gardeners, being especially well adapted to stony 

 ground. It is also an excellent pulverizer and leveler. 

 Disk and cutaway disk harrows are exceedingly valuable 

 implements as pulverizers, and are especially useful for 

 clay soils and for reducing heavy sods. When heavily 

 weighted they cut to great depth. Disking is sometimes 

 practiced before plowing. This preliminary operation 

 is regarded by some as being of special value in truck 

 farming. Manure can be applied, and then chopped up 

 and worked into the soil before plowing. This method 

 results in fine soil to the full depth of the plow furrow, 

 if harrowing after plowing is done as thoroughly as it 

 should be. The disk harrow is unquestionably the best 

 pulverizing tool for the heavier soil types and is far supe- 

 rior to the spring-tooth harrow in most soils. The Acme 

 harrow is prized by many vegetable growers because it 

 not only pulverizes to a considerable depth, but it has also 

 good leveling action. The Meeker smoothing harrow, which 

 has 58 disks mounted on four rollers, is practically in- 

 dispensable in vegetable gardening as a finishing harrow 

 and should be used exclusively for this purpose. It does 

 the work of a steel garden rake, though better and more 

 economically, and not only pulverizes to the depth of 3 or 

 4 inches, crushing even the smallest clods, but by an ad- 

 justable plank running across the middle of the harrow 

 it also levels and leaves the soil in the smoothest possible 

 condition for sowing or transplanting. It is an old har- 

 row, but not as generally used as it should be. 



The efficiency of harrowing depends not only upon the 

 adaptation of the implement to the work to be performed, 

 but also upon the moisture content of the soil at the 

 time of operation. If too dry, a large percentage of the 

 clods will not be broken and if too wet great injury will 

 be caused in puddling. Closer attention should be given 

 this matter by all classes of cultivators. A common oc- 



