A drag harrow, a type of

spring-tooth harrow Harrows, whether spring tooth, spike tooth or disc harrows can have a drag connection or have a 3 point mounting. A drag harrow is pulled and cannot be backed up. Three point implements can be raised and lowered hydraulicly and maneuvered more e ...

, is a largely outdated type of

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, water, and organisms that together support the life of plants and soil organisms. Some scientific definitions distinguish dirt from ''soil'' by re ...

cultivation implement that is used to smooth the ground as well as loosen it after it has been

plow A plough or (Differences between American and British spellings, US) plow (both pronounced ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses but modern ploughs ...

ed and

packed Data structure alignment is the way data is arranged and accessed in computer memory. It consists of three separate but related issues: data alignment, data structure padding, and packing. The CPU in modern computer hardware performs reads a ...

. It uses many flexible

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

teeth usually arranged into three rows. It has no

hydraulic Hydraulics () is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counterpart of pneumatics, which concer ...

functionality and has to be raised/adjusted with one or multiple manual levers. It is a largely outdated piece of

farm equipment Agricultural machinery relates to the mechanical structures and devices used in farming or other agriculture. There are many types of such equipment, from hand tools and power tools to tractors and the farm implements that they tow or operate. M ...

, having been replaced by more modern

disc harrow A disk harrow is a harrow (tool), harrow whose cutting edges are a row of concave metal discs, which may be scalloped or set at an oblique angle. It is an list of agricultural machinery, agricultural implement that is used to tillage, till the ...

s and hydraulically operated

field cultivator A cultivator (also known as a rotavator) is a piece of agricultural equipment used for secondary tillage. One sense of the name refers to frames with ''teeth'' (also called ''shanks'') that pierce the soil as they are dragged through it li ...

Uses

A drag harrow is used to loosen and even out soil after it has been

ed and packed. It pulls up large rocks which may then be picked up manually and put in the tractor's

stone box In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks form the Earth's o ...

to remove from the field. The drag harrow also kills some weeds that may be present, but it is not very efficient in doing so due to its highly flexible teeth, hence it is not one of its primary functions.

In modern times

The drag harrow is not often used in modern farming as other harrows have proven to be more suitable, such as the

. Another reason they are not often used is because they cannot be controlled hydraulically, meaning that the

operator Operator may refer to: Mathematics * A symbol indicating a mathematical operation * Logical operator or logical connective in mathematical logic * Operator (mathematics), mapping that acts on elements of a space to produce elements of another sp ...

is required to dismount from the

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a Trailer (vehicle), trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or constructio ...

to adjust it or unclog it. However it is used as a drag behind several other implements such as a rod weeder. Due to their low cost and simplicity, drag harrows are still used widely by small farmers.

References

{{Reflist Agricultural machinery

Uses

In modern times

See also

References