Sentence:  It is open to doubt whether there is any great advantage, but as it is customary in the districts where <WSD>raftering</WSD> is practised to use a primitive scuffler called a Brewer's drag, which is made without any means of adjusting the separate tines, ... 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  The practice by which land is raftered (turning the grass side of each furrow upon an unploughed ridge).