1992 



The Cornell Read ng Courses 



wheel hoes; both types have proved highly efficient. Scuffle hoes represent 

 the older tj^pe of hand cultivators and cost from fifty cents to one dollar, 

 depending on the width of the blade. Drag cultivators cost from fifty 

 to seventy-five cents, according to the number of prongs. 



Where the soil in the row is not stirred by tools of the types mentioned, 

 it is necessary to use hoes or weeders. There are many types of hand hoes : 

 those with the blades nearly square, as the common field hoes; those with 

 blades wider than they are deep, as the market garden hoes; onion hoes, 

 which are light and narrow bladed; field hoes with round teeth cut in the 

 base of the blade; those with long teeth; those with heart-shaped blades; 

 and man}^ others. Each of these types has some special advantage or 

 adaptability : for example, the heart-shaped hoe is used as a furrow opener, 

 those with round teeth and those with long teeth for fining the soil where 

 very shallow cultivation is desired, and the market garden and the field 

 hoes for killing weeds, as well as for mulching. The hoe that has a blade 

 on one side and single or double prongs on the other, is valuable for both 



Fig. 162. — Hoes for strrmig the soil. Different ones are good for different soils and 



different crops 



close and ordinary work. All these hoes should be used for about the 

 same purpose, that is, to stir a shallow layer of the topsoil and to kill 

 the weeds. 



Hand weeders are as nimierous in design as hoes, such types as the rake, 

 the knife, or the hook being common. They are operated very close 

 to the plants and are used generally in thinning thick stands of plants, 



