* - 
. HOEING—RAKING. 23 
oa be 
Draw Hoe. ~ 
Thrust Hoe. 
“te 
e 
nitite used for pulverizing the soil, or a third kind with two 
prongs may be substituted. In all these operations, the thrust hoe 
is best adapted for a lady’s use, as requiring the least exertion of 
strength, and being most easily managed; but the draw hoe is best 
adapted for making a drill or furrow for the reception of seeds, and 
also for the last and most important use of hoeing, viz. the drawing 
of the earth round the stems of ‘growing plants. 
<- operation of hoeing up, though very commonly practised, is 
aa 
only suitable to some kind of plants, and it is intended to afford ad- 
ditional nourishment to those which have tap-roots, by inducing 
them to throw out more lateral fibres. 
The plants which will bear to be hoed or earthed up, are those that 
throw out fibrous roots above the vital knot, like the cabbage tribe, 
&c.; or that are annuals with long bushy stems, and very weak and 
slender roots like the pea. Ligneous plants should never be earthed 
up, to avoid injuring the vital knot, which forms the point of sepa- 
ration between the main root and the stem, and which gardeners call 
the collar, crown, neck or collet. This part in trees and shrubs 
should never be buried ; as if it be injured by moisture so as to cause 
- it to rot, or if it be wounded in any way, the plant will die. A de- 
ciduous tree may be cut down close above the collar, and it will throw 
up fresh shoots, or the roots may all be cut off close below the collar, 
and if that part be uninjured fresh roots will form; but if a tree be 
cut through at this vital part it never can recover. 
» A trowel is another instrument used in stirring the soil, but of 
course it can only be employed in boxes of earth in balconies, &e. 
Raking is useful in smoothing the soib after digging, and in col- 
lecting weeds, stones, &c., and dragging them to one side, where they 
ort An iron-toothed rake is generally used for the 
. # 
# 
