Brake is a large and weighty harrow, used to reduce a stubborn soil. It consists of four square, bulls, each side live inches thick, and six feet and a half in length. The teeth are seventeen inches long, and bend forward like a coulter ; four of these are inserted in each bull, fixed above, with a screw nut, having twelve inches free below, with a heel close to the under part of the bull, to prevent its being pushed back by stones. This instrument requires four horses, or the same number of oxen, and may be applied with great advantage in fallowing strong clay that requires frequent ploughing*, as a breaking between each ploughing will pulverize the soil. In the month of March or April, on ploughing strong ground for barley, a cross brakeing is preferable to a cross ploughing, and may be performed at half the expence.

A brake with a greater number of teeth than that above described, is not proper for ground that is rendered adhesive by the roots of plants, such as land newly broken up : on the contrary, a less number of teeth would not sufficiently break the clods.