1897 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1 51 
this year, and it gave good satisfaction ; but this 
season, I have used a spring-tooth harrow made in 
York, Pa. It has a lever set, is mounted on low 
wheels, and is the most convenient harrow to use I 
ever tried. It can be made to work deeper than the 
Cutaway, yet can be set to run very shallow ; it is an 
excellent tool. My farm is some hilly and rather 
stony, and though not very heavy land, it is by no 
means sandy—stony loam describes it better. A few 
sulky plows are used about here, but mostly hand 
plows, either landside or swivel. Disk and Cutaway 
harrows are used, and some spring-tooth. Fine tooth 
or smoothing harrows are, generally, used for 
smoothing after the others. The coming tool which 
I have most longed to see is a cultivator which will 
work on the principle of the scuffle hoe, just slice 
under the surface at any desired depth without 
tumbling the soil about. Weeds will die much more 
certainly if the roots are cut just below the surface, 
than if dug up and tumbled about as by ordinary cul¬ 
tivator teeth. A slicing action really leaves the soil 
looser than a tumbling one. There are some culti¬ 
vators which seem intended to produce the slicing 
action, but the blades are set with so much pitch that 
they do not keep scoured bright, and they tumble the 
soil too much. monboe mobsk. 
Massachusetts. 
The Plank Drag in Indiana. 
My home farm, where I grow most of my grain, 
hay and potatoes, is oolitic limestone land, with dark 
red clay subsoil. The limestone lies from four to ten 
feet beneath the surface soil, excepting in ravines 
and along the branches, when it crops out occasion¬ 
ally, and is in the way when lands are cultivated. 
For this reason, I use the walking plow, the riding 
plow breaking frequently when these solid obstruc¬ 
tions are met. I use a steel plow to break up land, 
with jointer and wheel to regulate the depth. I use 
three horses when breaking sod, two when turning 
corn or oat stubble. For leveling and working down 
the earth after the breaking plow, I use the drag, 
Acme harrow, or the common smoothing harrow. 
When the ground becomes packed, the spring-tooth 
or disk harrow is used. I use the latter more than 
all others put together, and I consider it the best 
general-purpose harrow that has ever been invented. 
I seldom use the roller, as my land packs readily after 
being cultivated. For cultivating corn, I use the 
tongueless, two-horse, spring-tooth cultivators, giv¬ 
ing the crop level and shallow cultivation through¬ 
out. On potatoes, I use Breed’s weeder and spring- 
tooth cultivators, giving them one cultivation also. 
The Robbins potato-planter has given very good satis¬ 
faction the past two years. With its plow attachment 
to open up a furrow for planting, I found the draft 
too heavy for two horses, so it is removed, and a fur¬ 
row deeper and better is opened up with the shovel 
plow, and the planter then follows. 
In preparing land for any kind of crop, I find that 
a good plank drag is indispensable. Mine is made of 
two-inch plank, and is 3 x (5 feet in size. At the front 
end, harrow teeth are set in sloping back so that they 
will not catch and hold trash. These teeth elevate 
the front end of the drag, and help to break up the 
large clods and stir the soil. See Fig. 76. 
The chilled breaking plows are used more than any 
others in this locality, because they are cheap and 
run easy, I suppose; surely not on account of the good 
work they do. The roller is used by many in pre¬ 
paring ground for wheat, and a few think it indis¬ 
pensable on corn ground after planting, to break up 
the clods that otherwise would remain hard all sum¬ 
mer and be worth no more to the growing crop than 
so many stones. 
Our farmers are much more particular in preparing 
the seed-bed for all crops than they were a few years 
back, and they are getting good pay for their labor in 
increased yields of grain. Most of the lands under 
cultivation in this part of the country are rolling, 
and on this account, I think that we need a good re¬ 
versible breaking plow. Even where the lands are 
not rolling, the unsightly, unproductive dead furrow 
could be dispensed with, if a satisfactory reversible 
plow were introduced. We also have some potato 
growers who plant their seed as the clover sod is 
being turned, dropping the potatoes in every third 
furrow. Considerable time is lost in turning at the 
ends of the fields with the common plow, which 
would be abolished if the reversible plow were used. 
For our lands, it seems to me that there is very little 
left for the inventor to do in the matter of perfecting 
or improving new tillage tools. w. w. stevens. 
Indiana. 
Harrowing More Important Than Plowing. 
Here, in the Kennebec Valley, the tools most com¬ 
monly used to prepare a seed-bed are the Hussey hard 
metal and Frye steel plows, with an occasional Oliver 
chilled plow, and very few sulky plows, though the 
land is quite well fitted for their use. In my opinion, 
much less depends upon the plow than the harrow. 
Shape and draft do not matter much, if the plow run 
deep enough, and turn the furrow well. Most of our 
land is a clay or a clay loam, not stony except away 
from the river. The harrow quite generally used is 
the spring-tooth or some form of scratcher, and men 
who use nearly all forms of labor-saving tools, such 
as planters, mowers and forks, follow around on foot 
the horse-killing, sod-tearing spring-tooth, day after 
day, and week after week. Some of us use the disk 
or Cutaway, and though it is fun for the teamster and 
comparative comfort for the team, I do not know that 
we raise better crops or amass greater wealth than 
the other fellows. Still I know that 1 cultivate my 
land twice as thoroughly as I used to do, and take 
much more pleasure in farming, because it is better 
done. 
The man who is sure to raise beans because his 
neighbor made a dollar on them last year, or White 
Wyandottes “ because they look so nice,” will scratch 
his grain fields, if every sod is turned up, and hand- 
hoe instead of cultivate his corn, for what reason I 
do not know, unless it be that it is the custom of his 
locality. Country grocers vary the same way. Why 
does one decorate his show windows with a handful 
of suspenders, a codfish and a pair of mittens, while 
his neighbor makes it a regular flower garden, with 
canned goods and fancy groceries ? One display 
repels while the other attracts custom, but the fancy 
window doesn’t always repel bankruptcy any more 
than the other invites it. I think we need here a 
fine-toothed surface cultivator or weeder more than 
anything else at the present time. g. s. paine. 
Maine. 
For Kansas Soil; a New Cultivator. 
In preparing a seed-bed, we generally use the 
plow, harrow while moist with a slanting-tooth har¬ 
row, float with a clod-crusher, or use a roller, then 
(NORTH.) 
p 
P 
P 
P 
P 
P 
P 
p 
P 
P 
P 
P 
P 
P 
P 
p 
F 
P 
F 
P 
F 
P 
F 
F 
P 
F 
P 
F 
P 
F 
P 
p 
F 
P 
F 
P 
F 
P 
F 
F 
P 
F 
P 
F 
P 
F 
P 
P 
F 
F 
F 
P 
F 
F 
P 
F 
F 
P 
F 
F 
F 
F 
P 
F 
F 
P 
F 
F 
F 
P 
F 
F 
P 
P 
F 
F 
F 
P 
F 
F 
P 
F 
F 
P 
F 
F 
F 
F 
P 
F 
F 
P 
F 
F 
F 
P 
F 
F 
P 
P 
F 
P 
F 
P 
F 
P 
F 
(SOUTH.) 
HEXAGONAL PLAN. Fig. 77. 
52 permanent trees, 33 feet apart; or 104 trees, 33 x 16 % feet apart; 
or 156 trees, 16>4 x 16>4 feet apart, after leaving 
out two rows for alleys. 
plant, followed by a harrow. This county is rolling 
prairie, almost level, with no place requiring the use 
of the brake or breeching, with soil free from sand or 
rocks, of an alluvial mold 17 to 20 inches deep, underlaid 
with water-tight clay. A prairie sod plow is used to 
subdue the sod, then chilled plows, and all the modern 
makes of implements are used. The best satisfaction 
ever given me by a plow was by the Cassidy sulky 
plow, which has no landside or heel bar to cause draft 
by friction, but a slanting wheel in the furrow takes 
the place of both, and when well oiled, reduces the 
draft wonderfully. The moldboard of this plow is 
adjustable, and may be swung sharp, to throw the 
soil at right angles to the furrow, or the furrow may 
be laid over just like a big rope, or the same as a sod 
plow does, and this makes this plow admirably 
adapted for clover sod, dry and wet soil, and all con¬ 
ditions of land. Our plow-makers make their plows 
to be adjusted for depth and width of furrow, and 
never dream of putting in an adjustable moldboard 
to suit different soils, but one shape of moldboard 
must be used in a hundred different kinds of soil. 
There is no sense in such construction of plows, and 
a plow should be made to adj ust the pitch of the fur¬ 
rows without stopping the team. 
The best harrows are the steel lever harrows that 
pull squarely behind the team. Two sections of such 
a harrow can be hitched by chains behind the Superior 
roller, and two jobs done at once, while the old style 
harrows that draw with one corner ahead of the 
other, could not be used so well. We use disks, and 
when dull, have them drawn out by the blacksmith ; 
but the spading harrow could never be introduced 
here ; in fact, it is not needed as it is in clay land. 
A new tillage tool needed here is the Superior culti¬ 
vator made by the makers of the Superior roller. It 
is a riding or walking cultivator made of all steel but 
the split tongue. The wheels have broad tires with 
ball bearings, do not come up to the driver’s seat, 
are true castor wheels and can be set in to 30 inches 
for potatoes, or 52 inches for corn. When set in, the 
shovels cultivate outside of the wheel track and this 
makes it a handy tool in the orchard or grapery, 
while in potato cultivating, it is worth two common 
machines, as it thoroughly cultivates two spaces at 
once, instead of one, as others do. The shovels are 
reversible and are made pointed on one end, and flat¬ 
faced for level surface cultivation on the other. The 
gangs are composed of four shovels each, and may be 
steered by the feet or by the hand. They are forced 
into the soil by a powerful steel spring, and the depth 
is regulated by a steel rope cable attached to a sheave 
wheel by an eye bolt, and may be adjusted to the 
fraction of an inch. The sheave wheel has a handle 
and is locked by a ratchet. But of all things, the 
steering gear caps the climax. The. wheels are cas¬ 
tors, and are braced forward by two braces to each 
wheel, to a sliding bar that is pushed to one side or 
the other, thus turning the wheels that way, by a 
lever called the rudder which extends back to the 
driver’s hand. When walking, no handles are needed, 
as the spring holds the teeth to their work, and an 
extension of the rudder enables the man walking to 
guide the machine better than in any other way. 
When riding and cultivating, it is not necessary to 
guide the horses by driving, but by a slight move¬ 
ment of the rudder the most crooked rows are fol¬ 
lowed by a child, and two rows of potatoes cultivated 
at once, thus reducing the cost of cultivation just 
one-half—an important thing in these times of low 
prices. When turning, the rudder will enable the 
driver to send the machine away out and around, 
coming into the rows again squarely. It seems to me 
that this manner of steering cannot be dwelt on 
too much, as it enables a child or cripple to do the 
work of a man. There are eight shovels and an extra 
one is sent to put in the center to work up fall plow¬ 
ing, also two hillers for ridging up. 
With two seeders on the Superior roller, and two 
sections of the steel lever harrow hitched behind, I 
can reduce the cost of putting in my crop of clover 
and its nurse crop of flax, enough to pay for the 
use of the reaper to cut the crop; and with the 
Superior cultivator, I can tend just twice the crop of 
potatoes that I formerly could. By sowing millet in 
my potatoes when I lay by the crop, it costs me only 
from two to four cents per bushel. 
Kansas. clabence j. nobton. 
PLANS FOR ORCHARD PLANTING. 
HOW THE TBEES ABE PLACED. 
Before planting an orchard of any kind, it is well 
to consider carefully the whole subject of how to do 
it. The distance apart which will suit each class of 
fruit the best is one of the very important things. It 
is fruit that one desires, and the most and the best of 
it, and all things should look to this one result. The 
trees should be planted so that they may be able to 
attain their best development, not necessarily their 
largest size as forest trees. If it were wood we 
wanted, we should plant them quite close, enrich the 
soil to stimulate them, and encourage their upward 
growth by every means, but carefully avoid the pro¬ 
duction of lateral branches. Therefore, a fruit tree 
requires more space in proportion to its size than a 
forest tree. We wish it to have the full benefits of 
sunlight from top to bottom, otherwise, the trees 
must be small and spindling, the side branches short 
and weak, the foliage pale and feeble, and the fruit 
scarce, small, poorly colored and lacking in flavor, 
except on the uppermost twigs. For a number of 
years, the trees will necessarily have much more 
space than they really need, if planted the distance 
apart that they will require when grown to full bear¬ 
ing age. Not only will there be wide spaces between 
their tops, but much of the soil will be unoccupied by 
their roots. Therefore, some plan for using this 
space without, in any way, hindering the proper 
growth of the trees, is permissible, economical and 
desirable. 
Many plant peach trees among their apple trees 
to fill the spaces until the apple trees get old enough 
to need all the room. I have done so myself, but do 
not like it now. The peach trees are of quicker 
growth, and rob the apple trees to a damaging degree, 
in many cases. Dwarf pear trees are occasionally set 
in apple or standard pear orchards, but this is gene¬ 
rally a mistake, because the trees often need very 
different culture, especially when the pear trees 
blight badly from too rapid growth. Moreover, if 
the dwarf pear trees are planted deep, they send 
out pear roots above the quince stocks, and become 
almost as long-lived as the other trees. The wiser 
plan is, in almost every case, to plant apples, peaches, 
pears, cherries, plums, apricots, etc., by themselves, 
but to fill up the spaces until the permanent trees 
need the whole, plant varieties of the same species 
that will come into bearing early. 
