Book IV. 



IMPLEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE. 



363 



ing them with hinges, which will allow it to bend 

 and accommodate itself to the curvature of the 

 ridges. The advantage of this kind of rake has 

 been found considerable, even in cases where 

 every possible attention has been paid to the cut- 

 ting of the crop. 



2384. The stubble, or dew rake y is merely a 

 coarser sort of corn rake. 



2385. The daisey rake, has teeth sharpened on 

 both edges like lancets, and is used for raking oft* 

 the flower heads or buds of daiseys, and other 

 plants in grass lawns. 



2386. The drill rake is a large headed rake, in 

 which the teeth are triangular, in section like small 

 coulters ; they are set at six or twelve inchesa 

 distance, according to circumstances, and the 

 implement is used to draw drills across beds or 

 ridges, for sowing field crops of small seeds or roots, such as onions, early turnips, 

 carrots, &c. or for planting saffron or Indian corn. 



2387. The dung drag, or dung hack, is a two or three pronged implement, with a long 

 handle for drawing the dung out of carts in different portions. The form of the prongs 

 should be flat. 



2388. The earth hack resembles a large hoe, and is used for emptying loads of earth or 

 lime, or other pulverulent matters, in the same manner as the dung drag is used for em- 

 ptying dung ; it is sometimes also used as a hoe, and for scraping and cleaning. 



2389. The hand hoe, commonly used in agriculture, is of two kinds ; that with an 

 entire and that vvith a perforated blade. The last variety is preferable for thinning crops 

 or destroying weeds, as it does not collect the soil and the weeds together in heaps ; but 

 where earthing up is the object, the common square blade is the best. The breadth of 

 the blade may vary from two to twelve inches, according as the soil is adhesive or loose, 

 or the plants to be thinned to a greater or lesser distance. An improvement for hoes to 

 be used in stirring stiff soils, consists in forming the blade with a prong or prongs on 

 the opposite side of the broad blade, which can be used in very stiff places to loosen them, 

 by the operator's merely altering the position of the handle. The blades of all hoes enter 

 the soil easier when curved than when straight, the wedge in the former case being narrower. 



2390. Various improvements in hoes have been 



attempted by agriculturists. One with a trian- dj^ J^JL,^ ^^^ "0? 



gular blade has been recommended as adapted ^ p~t ? Jftf^tTliL 

 to thin either at a greater or lesser distance, ac- ^ ^ XZH3^ ry^v^ \2v^ 

 cording to the depth it is thrust into the soil. j^-^::::::^^ C^ 



Lord Somerville recommends the forked tool 

 {jig. 253 a.) or heav^ hoe, usedin the vineyards on 

 the continent; but it is an implement more op- 

 pressive to the cultivator than a spade, as it requires him to stoop very low. Ducket, jun, 

 recommends a treble hoe (6) for thinning ; another of a different description (c) for 

 making drills by drawing ; one for making them by striking in a line, in order to form 

 a trench for dung and potatoes {J) ; one for forming a drill in the common way (e) ; 

 and, lastly, one for hoeing both sides of a drill at once [d]. It is said that by this last 

 tool two acres of barley may be hoed in a day, and that it makes good work among 

 oats or wheat. But such hoeing, even on the slightest soils, can be little more than a 

 mere scraping of the surface ; and though the weeds may be cut, yet this is only one 

 object of hoeing. 



2391. The breast hoe, or breast plough, which is pushed before the operator like 

 the thrust hoe of gardening ; and M'Dougal's hoe, which is drawn by a man before, 

 and pushed by another behind, witli other varieties, need not be described. 



2392. The scraper may be described as a broad hoe, of treble the usual size and 

 strength, used in cleaning roads or court-yards, and sometimes in cleaning grassy 

 surfaces. One with the ends of the blade turned an inch or two, is found more 

 effective in scraping the mud or dust from roads. 



2393. Of weeding tools used in agriculture there are three or four kinds ; one with a 

 long handle and fulcrum to the blade, for digging docks and other tap rooted plants from 

 pastures ; a common spud or spadelet for cutting smaller weeds in hedges or standing 

 corn ; a thistle spud for cutting and rooting out thistles in pastures ; besides short handled 

 weeders of different kinds, to be used in hand-weeding young and delicate broad cast 

 crops, as onions, &c. in stiff soils. 



2394. Weeding pincers, or thistle drawers, (fig. 254.) are sometimes used for pulling 

 thistles out of hedges and from among standing corn ; the handles are about two feet six 



U 



