Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1880-08-25

Narrowing Growing Crops,

MIR. EDITOR:-On looking over the ag-
ricullurAl department of the FREEMAN |
(Which | always do the first thing on |
taking up the paper), | find something |
about narrowing growing grain, which |
makes me think that perhaps my expert |
ence will be Of benefit to some one.
But to begin with, | will tell how it !
came about that we happened to use a
harrow on some of our crops. We had
read good deal about, it and heard it
talked about in our agricultural meetings,
but had never seen it tried. Some of our
neighbors had Thomas harrow, but [
could not learn that any of them had tried
it on their crops | wanted father to let
Inc get one OF them and try it on our corn,
but he would not risk it. He thought the
harrow was good thing to use after sow.
ing grain, to smooth off the ground-did
not know but it was lrst the thing to 90
over corn with, but ii id not look right,
and fifteen dollars was 90 much to pay for
the smallest size harrow.
We use a drill to SOW our grain that had
a grass seed sower attached, SO that the
seed was sown in front and covered by
the drill teeth. Unless it was Il wet season
we found that not half of the seed would
grow, and what did grow would be in
streaks made by the drills. After we had
wasted grass seed enough to buy a
smoothing harrow | went to work and
changed the grass seed sower so that it
would SOW the seed behind the drills; then
we htd to have a light harrow to harrow
in the grass seed.
did not really like the Thomas harrow,
because the teeth do not draw straight
forward, but little sideways, making it
better to smooth the ground, but not SO
good for narrowing corn, etc. as it is
more likely to tear it up. So | went to
work and made what call an improve
ment upon the Thomas harrow. 1t is
made with four strips Of wood, 2x3 inches
and ) feet long. These strips are placed
in the form OF Il square, with rod through
the middle from one corner to the corner
opposite, dividing it into two wings The
wings are hinged upon the rod like the
common butterfly harrow, SO that each
can be lifted independent of the other
Two corners are hinged in an opposite di.
rection, 50 that the hind corner that is
hinged to the rod can be slid up or back
and fastened with set nut. 1t operates
exactly like opening and closing an UNI.
brella. The teeth are made of half-incl
round steel put in each piece of wooC
about four inches apart and slanted bach
good deal more than those of the Thomas
harrow. The teeth are not placed in :
straight line, but are set one forward anC
the other so that small straw as corr
stubble will not clog, as it does in tn,
Thomas harrow, but slip by from ont
tooth to the other, and so pass through t.
the middle of the harrow, which is an
open space, and then out at the back il
TIE same way. The harrow is light anC
requires but one horse to draw it. We USE
it to harrow in our grass seed, and il
proves to be just the thing; have used il
three years.
Now about narrowing crops: The frs
year after made it wanted to harrow
our corn, but father was decidedly OPP.
posed to it. We had piece of fodder
corn that was sowed in drills 2 feel
apart, work was driving, the corn was w
about 6 inches, and the weeds were
coming up very thckly. told the hired
man to hitch on to the harrow and go over
the corn, and would follow and uncover
what it covered up. Well, to my sur
prise, it did not cover up any of it-only
bent it over a little, but it destroyed all Of