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Vol. I.
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218
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218

IMPLEMENTS OF HUSBANDRY

sown. It must appear plain to every one in the least ac-quainted with farming, that no one of these instruments, ofwhatever construction, can be suitable to every soil, or stateof the ground; harrows, therefore, ought to be adapted tothe particular purpose intended to be accomplished. In soft,tender land, light harrows may answer; but with strong,stubborn soils, such as have been newly broken up from oldleys, or from a state of nature, harrows which possess greatweight and strength, furnished with long strong teeth, areabsolutely necessary. When the land is full of root weeds, itmay be requisite, not to set the bulls or buns too thick withteeth ; for if the teeth are too near to one another, the har-row is soon choked up with the weeds, and thereby prevent-ed from operating in a proper manner, by which means theland must be imperfectly pulverized.

The object of harrowing being to break the soil, to dragout weeds, to pulverise the land, and to cover the seed, it isobvious, that harrows of different sizes are absolutely necessa-ry for these purposes 5 because strong obdurate land, whenploughed wet, becomes afterwards so dry and hard, that alight harrow makes very little impression upon it. To reducesuch ground, a large heavy harrow, generally termed a brake ,is commonly employed. There are different kinds of this in-strument ; one kind is of the same shape with the commonharrow, but much larger and heavier, and furnished withlong strong teeth. Some of these brake-harrows are construct-ed with hinges, so as to bend, and accommodate their shapeto the curvature of the ridge. There is another sort of brake,made in the form of an equilateral triangle, having a row ofstrong teeth inserted into two of its sides; the third side,which, when using, is farthest from the horse, being left with-out teeth, in order that it may work more freely. Thesebrake-harrows are commonly made heavier or lighter, ac-cording to the nature of the land for which they are design-ed ; some of them, indeed, are made so heavy as to require