172 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[May, 
About Harrows. 
BY GEORGE E. WARING, JR., OGDEN FARM. 
Last spring the makers of Thomas’s smooth¬ 
ing harrow complained that the account given 
in “Ogden Farm Papers” of my experience 
with their implement had resulted to their dis¬ 
advantage, and they asked me to try this year 
one of a new form, but working on the same 
principle. Another maker asked me to try a 
Bussell harrow (a cousin of the Nisliwitz). A 
friend had sent me an English “Flexible” or 
chain harrow. I had already a large “ Shares.” 
The latter, which is now well known, I con¬ 
sider the best harrow for rough cultivation that 
I have ever seen. It cuts up a newly-turned 
sod furrow to perfection, and gives one or two 
inches of perfect covering, while it tends rather 
to press the furrow into its place than to tear it 
up, as the common tooth-harrow does. I have 
not had a common harrow on the place for two 
years, nor do I care to have one so long as I 
can get a Shares. 
The Bussell harrow is intended to do the 
same work with the foregoing—that is, the 
rough handling of newly-plowed land—but to 
do it in a very different way. The frame is A- 
shaped, like the Shares, and it has the everlast¬ 
ing spring seat on it by which manufacturers 
hope to catch the fancy of the lazier class of 
farmers, (I shall not be surprised to see some 
day a churn with a spring-seat for the man who 
is to turn the crank.) The frame is supported 
on about a dozen wheels set along its edge, 
wheels with sharp edges and very much dished, 
and about 14 inches in diameter. They are set 
at an angle with the line of march, so as to cut 
into the ground and throw the dirt (a little out¬ 
ward) as fine as sawdust. I gave this machine 
a fair trial, and found its wheels not suited to 
my heavy soil, its draught not suited to my 
very heavy mule team, and its seat not suited 
to my heavy style of riding. In short, I did 
not like it, either as an agricultural implement 
or as a pleasure vehicle. I have, however, good 
accounts of it in some other quarters. I return 
to my Shares harrow, quite content. 
Thomas’s smoother is mainly for finish¬ 
ing work. It has been very much improved 
from its original form, being now made in three 
sections, each about three feet square, hinged 
together in such a way as to cover a width of 
nine feet, and hung to run with one end a little 
further back than the other, so that the teeth 
shall not “ track” with each other. The teeth 
are made of 8 / 8 steel rods, and are a little in¬ 
clined to the rear, so that their action is smooth¬ 
ing rather than scratching, something after the 
manner of a bush. When properly regulated, 
the tracks of the teeth are about one inch apart, 
and the ground is very finely pulverized and 
leveled. By repeated use, it may be made to 
do the work of both roller and bush; and I 
have found it, for all work for which it is 
adapted, as nearly perfect as any implement can 
be. But it is not adapted for the cultivation of 
corn on Ogden Farm. I gave it a fair trial, 
with the row and across the row, and it tore up 
or covered up too much of the crop for my 
taste. On light soils it may answer—I can not 
tell without trying—but on my soil it will never 
do until I can get control of sun and rain, and 
keep the ground light and mellow from planting 
time until the corn is up, and I very much 
doubt whether it would do even then. It is, 
however, to my mind, no argument against a 
plow that you can’t mow grass with it. I am 
entirely satisfied with the Thomas harrow, as a 
harrow; for hoeing corn I must still recom¬ 
mend “ the good old way.” If I could have only 
one, I would dispense with the Shares rather 
than with the Thomas. Both together make 
the most complete work. 
The English flexible harrow (fig. 1) is quite 
an old affair—so old that the patent has run out, 
making it public property—which our imple¬ 
ment-makers would do well to adopt. The 
teeth are of chilled iron, and they are fastened 
together with steel links. It is perfectly flex¬ 
ible, and every tooth is bound to descend until 
it touches the ground. This makes it the 
“ s’archin’est ” harrow that can be found. The 
top of every hummock and the bottom of every 
dead furrow is sure to receive its due share of 
the scratching. The teeth are longer on one 
side than the other, and at one edge they are 
vertical, while at the other they are oblique, 
so that the harrow may be used either side up 
or either end first. Drawn as it is shown in 
the cut, it is an effective harrow to follow the 
plow; drawn the other side up, and with the 
draught-bar hooked to the opposite end, it is a 
fine smoothing-harrow, almost equal to a chain- 
mat drawn over the ground. 
I have found this a good implement for all 
work, and so much better than anything else I 
have ever seen for fining manure that has been 
spread from a cart, or for beating up the manure 
on a pasture (loosening up the grass at the same 
time), that I believe its use will add at least ten 
per cent to the effect of manure, spread and 
beaten in the ordinary way, simply by causing 
a more even distribution of the fertilizing mat¬ 
ter over the whole surface. 
Jerseys in Nova Scotia. —The testimony 
of our Mobile correspondent is no more favor¬ 
able to this breed for the far South than is that 
of Mr. Ciias. C. Brown, of Yarmouth, Nova 
Scotia, for the far North. He says: “My s / 4 
Alderney gave Nov. 21st 33 lbs, 7 oz. ipilk, 
dropped calf March 26th, and wdll come in 
again March 10th; gives now (Jan. 5th) 10 to 12 
lbs. in the morning,fed on good hay (cut in June), 
with half a bushel of turnips per day, and is 
good beef notwithstanding the usual gauntness 
of the breed, think our climate especially 
adapted to the Alaerney. When I had but one 
cow and a family of eleven, with five children, 
using milk freely, and cream always three times 
daily, we made as high as 7 lbs. butter from one 
week’s milk. This season, with a second cow 
( 3 /t Alderney), a daughter of the first, but with 
six children, we made up to 23| lbs. Surely 
we are not wrong when we think this breed 
suits our country.” 
i ' ■ *- 
How to Dress a Sheep. 
The “woolly taste” in mutton is not derived 
from the wool. The peculiar flavor of ill-dressed 
mutton has nothing to do with the coat of the 
sheep, but arises from the absorption by the meat 
of the gases from the intestines, which, as the 
outside of the carcass cools, can not escape, and 
are therefore absorbed by the flesh. There is a 
simple remedy. As soon as the animal is dead, 
let the hide be slit up from the brisket to the 
tail, and to the knees, by a quick motion of a 
sharp-pointed knife, inserted beneath the skin. 
Strip the skin from the belly and the ribs and legs, 
so that it will be out of the way of the intestines. 
Then open the sheep immediately, and disem¬ 
bowel it. All this ought to be the work of about 
one minute or two, or if it occupies five, there 
will not be sufficient time for the carcass to cool 
sufficiently to cause any unpleasant taste. Then 
proceed to strip the skin from the back of the 
carcass. A sheep should be killed by thrusting a 
sharp knife through the neck, back of the wind¬ 
pipe, ■without touching it however, but cutting 
the arteries; and as soon as the knife is inserted, 
DRESSING A SHEEP. 
it should be twisted around as if to make a round 
hole; there will then be no mistake made in 
cutting the arteries, and the death of the animal 
will be comparatively painless and rapid. As 
mutton should be made the chief meat diet of 
a fanner during the summer, it is well that every 
one should know how to slaughter and dress a 
sheep iu the best manner. Among other trades,, 
a farmer ought to be a fair if not a good butcher. 
He will not then complain of woolly mutton. 
ENGLISH FLEXIBLE OR CHAIN-HARROW. 
