HOE 



293 



HOE 



These have all handles varying in length ; The whole length of this prong is nine 

 from eight inches and a half to eighteen inches, and it is attached to a staff five 

 inches, all the neck or upper part form- feet long. Such an implement is light 

 ed of iron, for the smaller sizes not ! and easy to use; it requires no sloop- 

 thicker than a large pencil, and that ing, and will tear up the deepest-rooted 

 part which has to be grasped by the j weeds."' 



workman is only six inches long, and ; Hoes are made in a great variety of 

 " formed either of willow or some other forms; the following, figured in The 

 soft light wood, which is best to the feel Rural Register, are those most gene- 

 of the hand; for hard heavy wood is ' rally used, and perhaps are all which 

 cumbersome, harsh, and tiring." Each i are truly desirable ; they are, when well 



labourer works " with one in each hand, 

 to cut right and left." "The blade is 

 made thin, and with a little foresight 

 and activity it is astonishing how much 

 ground can be got over in a short 

 time." 



Mr. Barnes has all his hoes made 

 with a crane neck. The blades broader 

 than four inches Mr. Barnes has made 

 like a Dutch hoe. 



"The crane neck allows the blade 

 to pass freely and kindly under the fo- 

 liage of any crop where the earth re- 

 quires loosening; and the blade works 

 itself clean, allowing the earth to pass 

 through, as there is no place for it to 

 lodge and clog up as in the old-fash- 

 ioned hoc, to clean which, when used 

 of a dewy morning, causes the loss of 

 much time in scraping." 



" The draw-hoe" is correctly de- 

 scribed by Mr. Loudon as a " plate of 

 iron attached to a handle about four 

 feet long, at an angle less than a right 

 angle. The blade is either broad for 

 cutting weeds, deep and strong for 

 drawing earth to the stems of plants, 

 curved, so as to act like a double 

 mould-boarded plough in drawing drills, 

 formed into two strong broad prongs 

 for stirring hard adhesive soils, — or it 

 is formed to accomplish the first and 

 last purposes, as in the double hoe or 

 Dutch hoe. 



" The thrust-hoe consists of a plate 

 of iron attached somewhat obliquly to 

 the end of a handle by a bow, used only 

 for killing weeds or loosening ground 

 which is to lie afterwards raked. As 

 a man can draw more than he can push, 

 most heavy work will be easiest done 

 by the draw-hoc." — f2nc. Gard. 



In the island of Guernsey a very ef- 

 fective weeding-prong is used, and is 

 thus described in the Gardener^s Chron- 

 icle : — 



" It is something in the shape of a 

 hammer, the head flattened into a chisel 

 an inch wide, and the fork the same. 



made, of cast steel. 



Square garden Hoe. 



Fig. 79. 



Pronged-back 

 Hoe. Fig. SI. 



Forked-back 

 Hoe. Fig. 82. 



Dutch or Scuffle 

 Hoe. Fig. 85. 



