The ground is now pulverised by harrows of various shapes, according to the nature of the crop to be sown. English farmers generally employ the spike harrow; but Yankee agriculturists make great use of the spring-tooth form, which may best be described as an arrangement of very strong springs much resembling in outline the springs of house bells. The shorter arm is attached to the frame, while the longer and pointed arm tears the earth.
DRILLS AND SEEDERS
In highly civilised countries the man carrying a basket from which he flings seeds broadcast is a very rare sight indeed. The primitive method may have been effective—a good sower could cover an acre evenly with half a pint of turnip seed—but very slow. We now use a long bin mounted on wheels, which revolves discs inside the bin, furnished with tiny spoons round the periphery to scoop small quantities of seed into tubes terminating in a coulter. The farmer is thus certain of having evenly planted and parallel rows of grain, which in the early spring, when the sprouting begins, make so pleasant an addition to the landscape.
The "corn," or maize, crop of the United States is so important that it demands special sowing machinery, which plants single grains at intervals of about eighteen inches. A somewhat similar device is used for planting potatoes.
Passing over the weeding machines, which offer no features of particular interest, we come to the
REAPING MACHINES,
on which a vast amount of ingenuity has been expended. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the Royal Agricultural Society of Great Britain offered a prize for the introduction of a really useful machine which should replace the scythe and sickle. Several machines were brought out, but they did not prove practical enough to attract much attention. Cyrus H. McCormick invented in 1831 the reaper, which, with very many improvements added, is to-day employed in all parts of the world. The most noticeable point of this machine was the bar furnished with a row of triangular blades which passed very rapidly to and fro through slots in an equal number of sharp steel points, against which they cut the grain. The to-and-fro action of the cutter-blade was produced by a connecting-rod working on a crank rotated by the wheels carrying the machine.
A WHEAT-CUTTER