. The story of agriculture in the United States. completed scores or hundreds of patents were taken outupon a single machine; a few of these would prove tobe practical. Ideas were borrowed and , each machine went through a gradualgrowth, and in its final form was the result of studyand experiment by many faithful workers and enter-prising manufacturers. In the history of harrows, one can find that manyimprovements have been made upon the old homemadeframe, set with wooden teeth, or with iron spikes madeby the village blacksmith. An advantage was gainedwhen t
. The story of agriculture in the United States. completed scores or hundreds of patents were taken outupon a single machine; a few of these would prove tobe practical. Ideas were borrowed and , each machine went through a gradualgrowth, and in its final form was the result of studyand experiment by many faithful workers and enter-prising manufacturers. In the history of harrows, one can find that manyimprovements have been made upon the old homemadeframe, set with wooden teeth, or with iron spikes madeby the village blacksmith. An advantage was gainedwhen the teeth were given a backward slant, for the 250 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES clods were then better crushed and the ground wassmoothed. A great improvement was made when theframe was constructed of iron or steel, and especiallywhen, after 1870, the teeth might be set by a lever atany pitch. Many years before this the disk harrow hadbeen patented, but it did not come into general use untilafter that date. At the same time the spring-tooth. Two-Row Cultivator harrow was being manufactured. Gradually, there wereinvented sulky harrows of many kinds, suited to differentsoils. These crushed, turned, and smoothed the groundall in one operation. There is also a ball-bearing diskharrow with dirt-proof oil chambers. The improvement of cultivators and harrows wasstimulated by the invention and use of grain drills andcorn planters; for these greatly increased the numberof acres that a farmer could plant. The manufactureof seeders and grain drills began as early as 1840, butcorn planters were not successful until ten years came gradually, until the present almostperfect machines were developed: seeders that both THE AGE OF MACHINERY 251 plant and cover the grain, either in straight or zigzagrows, spreading fertilizer at the same time; corn plantersthat drop kernels of uniform size at any interval desired,or plant alternate rows of corn and beans, marking thenext row
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectagriculture, bookyear
