TILLAGE AND TILLAGE TOOLS 
31 
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. The Cultipacker 
is popular among some vegetable growers. 
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- 
