Harrow

or Drag, a well known agricultural implement. The first harrow was doubtless a tree top drawn by a person. Then came perhaps the crotch of a tree with long knots left to serve as teeth. The old A-harrow long used in England and in this country consisted of three pieces of timber framed in the shape of the letter A and provided at first with wooden, then with iron teeth, with which to scratch the ground. The drag of the northwest, used in grain raising countries, consists of from two to five wooden frames, each having the shape of a diamond. In level wheat regions four of these light frames are jointed to a central A-shaped section to make a drag. They are attached to a four-horse evener and have a sweep of from twenty to twenty-four feet. The number of teeth in the five sections is as high as 150. An active four-horse team will harrow from twenty to thirty acres a day with a drag of this sort. A writer in Bailey's Cyclopedia of Farming speaks of a steam traction drag with a sweep of 100 feet, capable of harrowing thirty acres an hour, or a section in two working days. See Agriculture; Wheat