190 7 NOTES. 
part of the labour proves often a very late employment, which 
affords many scenes of rustic mirth. 
_. * When this process has cleared the land of its various natu- 
ral incumbrances, (to attain which end. is very expensive and 
laborious,) the next part of the process is that of the hoe ; for 
the plough is an. implement which is rarely used in new lands 
when they are either designed for tobacco or meadow. 
.., © There are three kinds of the hoe which are applied to this 
tillage: the first is what is termed the sprouting hoe, which is a 
smaller species of mattock that serves to break up any particu- 
lar bard part of the ground, to grub up any smaller sized grubs _ 
which the mattock or grubbing hoe may have omitted, to remove 
small stones and other partial impediments to the next process. 
“The narrow or hilling hoe follows the operation of the 
sprouting hoe. It is generally from six to eight inches wide, 
and ten or twelve in the length of the blade, according to the 
strength of the person who is to use it; the blade is thin, and 
by means of a moveable wedge which is driven into the eye of 
the hoe, it can be set more or less digging (as it is termed,) that 
is, on a greater or less angle with the helve, at pleasure. In 
this respect there are few instances where the American black- 
smith is not employed to'alter the eye of an English-made hoe 
before it is fit for use; the industrious and truly useful mer- 
chants of Glasgow have paid more minute attention to this cir- 
cumstance. 
The use of this hoe is to break up the ground and throw it 
into shape ;_ which is done by chopping the clods until they are 
sufficiently fine, and then drawing the earth round the foot until it 
forms a heap round the projected leg of the labourer like a mole 
hill, and nearly as high as the knee ; he then draws out his foot, 
flattens the top of the hill by a dab with the flat part of the hoe, 
and advances forward to the next hill in the same manner, until 
the whole piece of ground is prepared. The centre of these 
