093 



HOE, HORSE-HOEING. 



HOG. 



lions were not fulfilled, the hoeing of the intervals has caused a very 

 great increase in the produce of the land, especially when united with 

 judicious ploughing and manuring, and a proper succession of crops. 



The simple horse-hoe is an instrument with a beam like a plough, 

 and two stilts or handles, but much lighter ; in this beam, and in 

 branches from it are inserted, instead of coulters, the ends of iron hoes 

 of the proper breadth to stir the whole surface between the rows. A 

 small wheel is generally added to keep the hoe at a proper depth in 

 the soil. 



A horse draws the instrument, which is held and guided like a 

 plough. 



From this simple instrument a variety of others have been invented 

 of a more complicated nature, but the object of them all is the same, 

 namely, to stir the ground between the rows, and destroy the weeds aa 

 fast as they appear. 



This horse-hoe is now chiefly used in the cultivation of peas, beans, 

 potatoes, cabbages, turnips, and carrots. 



The effect of hoeing is remarkable in very dry weather. Although 

 the stirring of the soil would seem to extract what little moisture 

 there might be in it, and the weeds wither on its surface, it soon 

 appears that, on the contrary, moisture is attracted or produced, and 

 the plants which drooped before appear refreshed and invigorated. 

 This is probably effected by a chemical action of the air on the vege- 

 table portion of the soil and on the roots of the plants, which have the 

 power of combining the gaseous principles in various ways. Whatever 

 be the mode in which it acts, experience has proved that the more 

 the earth is stirred around plants the better they thrive. 



When the intervals are very wide, as is the case where potatoes, 

 turnips, or cabbages grow in rows, a light plough, with one horse, 

 going up and down the intervals, answers the double purpose of a hoe 

 and plough. It stirs the ground to a greater depth, and can be guided 

 nearer to the growing plants than the common horse-hoe. It also 

 turns the soil over into the middle of the interval, from which it may 

 afterwards, when it has been improved by exposure to the air and ranis, 

 be thrown back towards the roots and stems of the plants. 



The operation of hoeing cannot be performed too soon after the 

 plant lias shot out its roots, because the ground may then be stirred 

 very near the young plant without danger, and the roots will spread 

 readily in the newly-stirred soil. 



1 n stiff soils it is often very difficult to use the horse-hoe, owing to 

 the hardness of the surface, which rises in lumps, the very reverse of 

 what is intended ; but a little attention to the time of hoeing and to 

 the weather will generally obviate this difficulty. If the soil is bound 

 at the surface, it is a proof that the preceding tillage has not been so 

 perfect as it ought ; that the ground has not been stirred to a suffi- 

 cient depth before winter, nor laid up sufficiently dry, or that it wants 

 underdraining. There are few soils which may not be made mellow 

 and crumbling some time or other in spring, and if the proper time be 

 chosen for the first hoeing, the surface will scarcely ever become BO 

 compact as to rise in large clods. In the case of a very tenacious soil 

 the small-spiked roller may be had recourse to, and after using it a 

 few times in dry weather, the surface will be left in a fit state for the 

 common horse-hoe. The method usually adopted in the horse-hoeing 

 husbandry has been taken from the common cultivation of the maize 

 or Indian corn in Lombardy. The rows there are about 27 to 30 

 niches distant : as soon as the plants are out of the ground, the earth 

 is taken from the plants and laid in a ridge in the centre of the interval ; 

 here it is exposed to the sun and rains, which, besides killing the 

 weeds, makes it much finer. In this state it is thrown back upon the 

 plants and laid against the stems, which strike fresh roots into this 

 mellow ground. But this will not be equally proper with all plants 

 and in- all soils. Both potatoes and cabbages are much improved by 

 heaping up the loose soil over them ; but this is not the case with 

 many other plants. The beet, for example, while it is growing and 

 swelling, is not benefited by having earth thrown round it, for this 

 would induce the root to send out fibres sideways, whereas they 

 should strike downwards in search of moisture. Turnips need not be 

 covered with earth from the intervals, but they may after growth be 

 protected from the frost by this covering. By attending to the growth 

 of any plant we may soon discover when it is advantageous to move 

 the earth from the roots and stems, and when it is best to draw it up 

 around them. With respect to the destruction of weeds, there can be 

 no doubt as to its great importance to all crops. It is generally sup- 

 posed that every time that wheat is hoed judiciously, more than a 

 bushel per acre is added to the crop, besides the benefit which the 

 land receives by eradicating the weeds. Two or three good hand- 

 hoeings will often so completely clear a field of weeds as to render 

 superfluous the fallow which would otherwise have been necessary, 

 and thua save all the expense of fallowing and the loss of one crop in 

 four or five. 



A great overnight in often committed when a field is hoed. The 

 parts nearest to the fences and the sides of the banks, where the 

 plough has not been able to go, are seldom hoed; but these parts 

 become by neglect prolific nurseries of all kinds of weeds, which ripen 

 their seeds, and disseminate them all over the field. No part of the 

 surface should be left uuhoed ; and when the hoers leave a field, they 

 should be able to defy any one to pick up a growing weed in it. 



Those who employ labourers to hoe a field, at a certain price 



per acre, should be careful to see that the whole ground between 

 the rows and the plants has been stirred ; for it is a common trick to 

 throw the earth over the growing weeds, and bury them only, without 

 cutting them up, by which instead of being destroyed, they nourish 

 more vigorously. 



The best time for hoeing stiff soils is when they are neither wet nor 

 dry ; when the surface is slightly caked, but there is moisture below 

 it, and when the weather is dry after some rain. Light soils can be 

 hoed at any time, and require it oftener than the heavy, especially 

 in showery weather. 



A horse-hoe, in which a framework 8 or 10 feet wide supported on 



large wheels carries twelve to twenty hoes attached to coulters hanging 



at intervals of a few inches from one another, is used now in the 



cultivation of drilled com crops during the earlier stages of their 



growth. Messrs. Garrett, of Saxmundham, Suffolk, invented an 



instrument of this kind, which has since been largely copied, in which 



the width cultivated and number of intervals hoed at once corresponds 



exactly with the width and rows which had been sown at once by 



the drill. It thus only needs that the hoe be placed on the exact rows 



which had been sown at one and the same time by the drill, and any 



| crookedness or uuevenuess in the row will be followed by the hoes. 



i That unevenness is of course common to all the rows of that width, and 



| it only needs, in guiding the framework of hoes which, rigid together, 



! hang in one piece, that one row be looked to and preserved, and all 



the others will be safe. Garrett's horse-hoe is now largely used in 



corn growing districts. One horse will thus cultivate 6 or 8 acres a 



day, at a cost of not more than 1. an acre, where formerly 4s. an acre 



was expended in hand-hoeing. 



HOG. The hog is one of the domestic animals which is most widely 

 dispersed through the world, and yields to no other in its usefulness. 

 It lives and thrives on every kind of food, vegetable or animal. It 

 grazes like the ox, and will even eat hay ; and its stomach can digest 

 what few other animals could swallow with impunity. The sow may 

 bear two litters in the year, having from eight to twelve, and even 

 sometimes eighteen or twenty young at a time. No animal converts a 

 given quantity of corn or other nutritive food BO soon into fat, or can 

 be made fat on so great a variety of food. 



The food of the hog in a wild state is grass, roots, acorns, beech- 

 mast, and wild fruits. He is active and ferocious ; and the boar-hunt, 

 from the danger which attends it, is well adapted to excite those who 

 are of a warlike disposition. 



There are many varieties of the domestic hog. The brindled hog 

 most nearly resembles the wild species ; but although the flesh is 

 savoury, he does not fatten so soon, nor is he so profitable as the more 

 indolent and softer stunned sorts are. . The great quality of a hog is 

 his power of digestion ; the more rapidly he fattens, and the earlier he 

 can be made to increase in flesh without increasing in bone, the better 

 is the breed Some of the small hogs which are brought from China 

 are remarkable for this quality, as well as for then- prolific nature ; 

 and when, by judicious crossing, the size is increased, they are a very 

 profitable breed. The Chinese pig is short in the head, with ears 

 pricked up and pointing backwards, very wide in the cheek, high in 

 the chine, and short in the leg. When a sow of this breed is heavy in 

 pig, her belly generally drags on the ground. The young pigs of the 

 Chinese breed, especially the white variety, are excellent for roasters, 

 at three weeks or a month old. They are 'small and fat, with little 

 bone, and their skin is very delicate. They also make excellent porkers 

 at about three months old, when kept for some time after weaning on 

 the refuse of the dairy. They may be kept fat from the time they are 

 weaned till they are fit to be killed for bacon ; and although they do 

 not come to a great size, they will pay very well' for their food if 

 killed at a twelvemonth old. 



The breed that is nearest to the Chinese in this country is the 

 Suffolk. They are generally white, with the ears pointed and rather 

 forward. They are broad in the chest and loins, short, and compact : 

 they make fine bacon hogs at twelve or fifteen months old, weighing 

 from twelve to fifteen score when killed. The sucking-pigs and 

 porkers are also very delicate. The Essex breed is mostly black and 

 white. The pure breed however is quite black, and is so nearly allied 

 to the smooth Neapolitan breed, which has scarcely any hair, that we 

 cannot help supposing a consanguinity between them. When crossed 

 with the Neapolitan they produce a breed which fattens at a very early 

 age, and to an astonishing degree. 



The Neapolitan hog is black, without any hair, very plump, with 

 pricked ears. No breed can excel it in the aptitude to fatten. The 

 sows often become so fat on very scanty food that they will not breed : 

 they are extremely tender ; and if they happen to have litters in winter, 

 it is difficult to save the young pigs from dying in cold nights. A 

 cross of the Neapolitan with some of our hardier breeds greatly im- 

 proves their usefulness, without injuring their aptitude to fatten : the 

 best cross is with the Berkshire, which is a very well shaped hog, with 

 short legs, small ears, broad chines and loins, and good hams. 



From the prolific nature of the hog it is not difficult to select the 

 best individuals to breed from. In every litter there will be pigs 

 better formed than the generality, and by careful selection of these 

 any breed may be soon much unproved without crossing ; but ex- 

 perience teaches that when the sows and boars are too nearly related, 

 the fecundity gradually diminishes; and by continually breeding from 



