A MAIZE STALK RAKE.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 239, 28 January 1888, Page 5

A MAIZE STALK RAKE.

The removal from the land of the maizo stalks after the grain has been harvested ,is one of the minor difficulties in growing this crop. An East Coast maize grower tells us that last year he ran disc harrows over the land in order to chop up the stalks, and then ploughed them in. He wa°, ho says, warned that he would have trouble with these ploughed-in stalks when he came to work the ' scarifier in this year's crop, bub he says that there was no trouble worth speaking of on this account. However that may be, it is well-known that maize stalk, take a long time to decay in the ground and the best'plan is to gather them up and remove them, or else burn them, thus restoring their mineral constituents to the soil in their ashes. A special kind of rake is required for gathering these sralkp, and we have previously figured and described such an implement in The Farmer. Some growers prefer this and some that style of stalk rake, and the one we here depieb has been found very sevviceable by a, correspondent of the American Agriculturist. Every year a larger area of maize is cultivated on the rich Opotiki and Whakatane alluvial lands, and the settlers in those districts who take The Farmer will find it worth their whilo, perhaps, to set about making the rake in question, in time for the approaching maize harvest.

The Kansas farmer,who sends the description of the rake, says that lie made one of these himself after trying various kinds, and that any man handy with tools can make one. For the head piece a tough stick 6 by 6 inches and 12 feet long was used. In it he bored eleven 2-inch holes for the teeth, on the opposite sides three mortises, 2 by 4 inches ; one in centre and one near each end for revolving bars. The bars and teeth are hickory' 4 feeb long. The arms are, 2 by 4 inch pieces, 6 feet long, fastened to the head by old wagon tire bent around the head and bolted to the arms. These arms are fixed at such a distance apart as to rest just inside the standards on the bolster of the front side of a farm waggon • on which it is to be used. The cross bar, has the ends extending beyond the arms so as to pull against the standards of the waggon. From a bar across the arms, about the middle of the frame, a rnort'sed piece is fixed to be used in the placo of the coupling pole, and the king bolt passed through the mortise. By bolting a board across near tho front, a spring seat from the mower secures comfort for the driver. The rake is emptied by means of the lever with handle at the ri^ht hand, as Bhown in the illustration.