SUMMER [Chap. 



height just mentioned^ you take a small hoe, with 

 sharp corners, and hoe all the ground on both 

 sides of the row of plants, to the distance of six 

 or eight inches, and at a time when the ground 

 is not ivet. Take care to move all the ground 

 between the plants, and close up to their stems. 

 If the com be in hills, let your hoe go to about 

 a foot from the plants all round, and move the 

 earth, with the corner of the hoe, between the 

 plants; so that all the young weeds be de- 

 stroyed. If there be tivo rows on the land, the 

 two feet between them must be all hoed. No 

 one, who has not actually seen the effect of this 

 work, can form an idea of its efficacy. Great is 

 its effect upon all young plants ; but, in no other 

 case, as far as I have observed, nearly so great as 

 in that of Corn, which testifies to your sight 

 its joy and gratitude in even a few hours after 

 the benefit has been received. If you were to 

 do this work to a field, generally, and to leave 

 one row unhoed, you would, at any distance that 

 would allow you to distinguish one row from 

 another, be able to tell, at the first look, which 

 was the neglected row. A man that could not, 

 or would not, go over two acres a day at this 

 hoeing, would be unfit to go into a field. 



93. After this hoeing, which, if you plant in 

 mid-April, will take place early in May, the 

 plants will soon be from six to eight inches high ; 



