The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1877-10-17
lssirlptpssstl9 Department
w. s. SHIELDS. EDITOR.


offer q few additional remarks on
the subject, mostly the result OF
many years experiment. The wri-
ter in the Agriculturist describes the
process by which a field of oats was
narrowed seven times with a com
mon harrow, with manifest advan.
tage. The ground was a light and
sandy alluyium, plowed the previ-
GUS autumn. A part of the field was
top-dressed with compost before
sowing the oats. and the remainder
Immediately afterwards. The last
mentioned top-dressing seemed to
answer best, and it served as a mulch
at the time the oats were coming up,
and was better pulverized and mix
ed with the soil. The common
heavy harrow being used, its first
passing tore out some plants of the
oats and buried others; but care be-
ing taken to run the teeth in the
same tracks every time, less distur-
bance occurred subsequently. The
teeth cut burrows, and ranged the
plants somewhat as if sowed with
a drill. The weeds we're killed who'll
sale. The crop was sowed about the
middle Of April, and the narrowing
took place at irregular intervals be-
tween May I'd and June 18th. The
weeds were well cleared out by
these several operations, and the
last one buried and destroyed a
crop OF PurSlane just making its APP
pearance at the surface. The oats
were then a foot high, and were
much fattened down by the harrow.
We are not informed what the
increase was in the amount of crop
consequent on the seven borrowings.
as the oats had not been cut, and
no estimate had been made. As
all the field appears to have been
treated alike, there was probably no
means of learning the amount OF in
crease effected.
Loosing the surface or breaking
the crust, as most farmers are aware,
generally contributes to q strong
increase in growth. The old prac-
tice ofcultivating corn and hoeing
the plants by hand, has always prov
ed an advantage. even where there
were no weeds to destroy. Greater
benefit is drived from frequent horse
culture. Farmers who have passed
the cultiYator between the rows
once a week, from the time the corn
was g few inches high till so large
as to brush the passing horse back,
have estimated the increase of their
crops from this treatment, from
twelve to twenty bushels per acre.
This principle applies alike to other
plants, and the EUROPEAN practice of
culEivating the drills of wheat has
proved its advantage But the labor
of working in drills is much greater
than cultivating broadcast, Hence
the advantage Of sweeping with a
harrow over the whole surface. A
common heavy harrow does not work
SO well as one much lighter and
with more numerous teeth. It's ac-
ton would be still more unfavora-
BILE on other soil than aIluvium. Our
own experiments have been made
with different implements, and
among others with the smoothing
harrow. 1t has the advantage over
the common heavy harrow, in not
requiring the care, mentioned by the
writer we have referred to, necesss-
ry in running the teeth in the pre-.
vious burrows made by the teeth.
Indeed it is better not to run in the
same tracks, but to sweep broad
cast and crosswise, leaving q smooth
even surface. This treatment kills
the young weeds that are just COM
ing up, and the teeth pass among
the plants without injury to them.
It thus accemplishes much more at
one narrowing than the heavy har-
row. and seven pasaings are not
necessary. In one case we run the
harrow, twice when the young oats
were about four and seven inches
high, sowing clover seed the last
time. To prevent injury to the
growth of the clover, about one-half
the usual amount of oats was sown
as seed. One half the field was treat
ed in this way, and the other half
was not narrowed at all after sowing.
The crop should have been measur-
ed, to give the difference accurately.
but it was not. A neighboring far
mer, however, estimated after a
careful examination of the oats
while standing that the narrowing
increased the crop as threei is to two,
the best portion being over sixty
bushels per acre. The clover on
this part Was better than on the
other. Other experiments have
given . similar but less striking re-
suit. ~
We have narrowed wheat four
times at interyals-the first as aeon
as the ground was dry enough in
spring, and afterward till the crop