St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1884-06-28
narrowing

A4SA &VWAAbSA
A good deal is written and said shout
blowing. but little in regard to harrow
ing. But narrowing is even more i'm
portant than blowing. Flowing can
not bring the soil into good condition
for the seed. It merely prepares it for
the more important work of narrowing,
and unless this is rightly done the soil
is wholly unfit for sowing or planting.
On light land, by the skillful use of the
pillow. the soil may be very nearly pre-
pared for the seed, but one indispens-
able requisite is wanting which the har-
row only can perform, and that is, the
consolidation of the ground to preserve
it from drying out too much, after it is
sown. But on heavy land the soil is
utterly unfit for the seed until it has
been pulverized and made fine as deeply
as it has been plowed. The pillow turns
over, the furrow slices, at times hard
and compact and almost as solid, when
dry, as stone. 1t is the purpose of the
harrow to reduce this cloddy soil to
a fine condition and to fit it for the
seed.
There are two ways of narrowing,
good and bad, and the bad sometimes
appears to be better than the good
work. Let US first consider the good
work. The harrow should have sharp,
long teeth, and be hitched by chain
sufficiently long to permit the harrow
to be dragged level and to avoid lifling
up the corner by which it is drawn. It
then works its way through the soil,
diverging from straight line at every
obstacle met By each tooth, and is thus
forced through the furrow slices in all
directions, and quickly reduces the COM
pact earth into fine mellow condition.
The Jumps which it can not break it
brings to the surface and there leaves
them, and in so doing it works the fine
soil down to the bottom. This is very
quickly done in light. sandy soil, but
requires more working to effect it in
hard, stiff land. When the work is
done, if the soil is stiff and cIaTey. the
surface will be covered with humps all
the harder and larger if the narrowing
has been delayed until the soil has be-
come dry, and all the smaller if it has
been done on the newly-lowed land.
But down below the soil is fine and mel
low and in good condition to receive the
seed and cause it to sprout and take
hold with its roots and make vigorous
growth. This, however, can not be
done with one or two strokes of the
harrow, but it requires repeated har-
rowing and even cross-harrowing to do
it well.
Bad narrowing can be done very
quickly, as other poor work may he
done. The harrow is hitched short,
and rides on few rows of the hinder
teeth The teeth are short and blunt,
and penetrate but very little way into
the ground. 1t scratches the surface
and does not work its way tortuously
through the soil down to the bottom.
It leaves the top fine, perhaps, but it
also leaves the bottom loose and open
even in light soil, while in heavy soil
the furrow slices lie upon each other I'M
broken, with vacant spaces at the bot
tom. An inexperienced man walking
over the field may think it well har-
rowed; but if he tries to push cane in
to the soil here and there, in one place
it will go down suddenly of its own
weight in q vacant space six inches or
more, and in another it can not be
pushed down more than two inches.
The seed soWn upon such soil is either
barely covered or it falls down into the
spaces. where it lies and rots, while the
other sprouts, but soon fades and dies.
because there is no soil for the roots to
penetrate with sufficient ease.
Perhaps the farmer has roller, and
thinks the roller will make up for these
deficiencies. But this is a mistake.
Where the narrowing has been good the
roller will do good service. 1t will
crush the Jumps left on the surface and
finish the good work of the harrow.
But on the badly narrowed land the
roller merely packs the surface over
the arched clods below, which are not
crushed, because the weight of the roller
does not reach them, and makes the
matter worse, because the thin skin of
soil packed by the roller soon dries and
bakes into crust, and the young plants
rooted in it very soon de.-M. Y.
Tines.