A spring-tooth harrow, sometimes called a drag harrow, is a type of tine harrow, and is a largely outdated piece of farm equipment

Farm equipment

Agricultural machinery is any kind of machinery used on a farm to help with farming. The best-known example of this kind is the tractor.-Soil cultivation:*Cultivator*Cultipacker*Chisel plow*Mulch tiller*Harrow**Spike harrow**Drag harrow...

. It uses many flexible iron teeth mounted in rows to loosen the soil before planting. It is set in the ground and raised manually and cannot be backed up; this is why it has been replaced by more modern equipment such as the chisel plow and field cultivator.

A drag harrow

Drag harrow

A drag harrow, a type of spring-tooth harrow, is a largely outdated type of soil cultivation implement that is used to smooth the ground as well as loosen it after it has been plowed and packed. It uses many flexible iron teeth usually arranged into three rows. It has no hydraulic functionality...

more specifically refers to a largely outdated type of soil

Soil

Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...

 cultivation

Tillage

Tillage is the agricultural preparation of the soil by mechanical agitation of various types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning. Examples of human-powered tilling methods using hand tools include shovelling, picking, mattock work, hoeing, and raking...

 implement

Implement

Implement may refer to:* Implementation — the process for putting a design, plan or policy into effect.* A class of tools — such as farm implements or writing implements....

 that is used to smooth the ground as well as loosen it after it has been plowed and packed

Cultipacker

A cultipacker is a piece of agricultural equipment that crushes dirt clods, removes air pockets, and presses down small stones, forming a smooth, firm seedbed...

. It uses many flexible iron

Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...

 teeth usually arranged into three rows. It has no hydraulic functionality and has to be raised/adjusted with one or multiple manual levers. It is a largely outdated piece of farm equipment

Farm equipment

Agricultural machinery is any kind of machinery used on a farm to help with farming. The best-known example of this kind is the tractor.-Soil cultivation:*Cultivator*Cultipacker*Chisel plow*Mulch tiller*Harrow**Spike harrow**Drag harrow...

, having been replaced by more modern disc harrow

Disc harrow

A disc harrow is a farm implement that is used to cultivate the soil where crops are to be planted. It is also used to chop up unwanted weeds or crop remainders. It consists of many iron or steel discs which have slight concavity and are arranged into two or four sections...

s and deeper, stiff-toothed rippers, however, smaller farmers still use them.

Uses

A drag harrow is used to loosen and even out soil after it has been plowed and packed. The drag harrow also kills some weeds that may be present, but it is not very efficient in doing so, and it is not one of its primary functions.

In modern times

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

Disc harrow

A disc harrow is a farm implement that is used to cultivate the soil where crops are to be planted. It is also used to chop up unwanted weeds or crop remainders. It consists of many iron or steel discs which have slight concavity and are arranged into two or four sections...

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

Operator (profession)

An operator is a professional designation used in various industries, including broadcasting , computing, customer service, physics, and construction. Operators are day-to-day end users of systems, that may or may not be mission-critical, but are typically managed and maintained by technicians or...

 is required to dismount from the tractor

Tractor

A tractor is a vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery used in agriculture or construction...

 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, old fashioned are still widely used by small farmers.

See also

Drag harrows can be a name used for several different types of equipment. A spike tooth harrow or flex harrow is often called a drag harrow and is in use extensively throughout the US for seedbed preparation and for grooming grassland pastures. See also:

• Spike harrow