HORTICULTURAL LABOURS ON THE SOIL. 233 



inserted which is used for general purposes, and more especially for hoeing 

 between rows of drilled crops ; and a, a socket with the blade b inserted, 

 which is used chiefly for thinning turnips. (See farther details of this hoe 

 in Gard. Mag. for 1841, p. 311.) For working in strong soil, a hoe with a 

 narrow stout blade is required ; and for very stiff soil, the Spanish hoe 

 (fig. 21, in p. 132) is the best tool. For hoeing, with a view to cut weeds, 

 the different descriptions of thrust-hoes are the most effective tools, espe- 

 cially among tall plants, but they are not calculated for stirring the soil to 

 any depth. A thrust-hoe with a shifting blade, like the Leicestershire draw- 

 hoe, would doubtless be a valuable implement. 



539. Raiting is an operation used for separating the surface of soil from 

 stones, roots, and other extraneous matters ; for rendering even dug surfaces 

 or gravel ; for covering seeds ; for collecting weeds, leaves, or mown grass ; 

 and, in general, for smoothing, covering, and collecting. The teeth of the 

 rake are placed at nearly a right angle to the bar to which they are riveted, 

 and somewhat bent towards the handle, so that when the operator keeps the 

 handle at an angle of 45, the teeth will pass through the soil at nearly that 

 angle, and consequently penetrate to nearly the whole length. The teeth of 

 iron rakes should be made with a small shoulder, neatly formed, so as to rest 

 flatly against the under side of the bar in which they are riveted. The 

 holes made in this bar for their reception should be widened below to admit 

 a thickening next the shoulder of the tooth, as shown in 

 fig. 163, for there the stress lies, and there, in nine cases out 

 of ten, the breakage occurs in the teeth. The rest of the 

 perforation should be narrow, in order not to weaken the 

 head-bar, a slight countersink only being required for the 

 rivet or clench on the upper side. The neck of the tooth is 

 exposed to a force, tending to bend or fracture it across ; but 

 when once the neck is secured, the remaining part which 

 passes through the head-bar has only a longitudinal tension. 

 The two principal uses of raking are to prepare the soil for 

 Fig. 1G3. Section of receiving seeds, and to render clean and even, surfaces among 

 the head of a gar- plants which have been recently hoed to destroy weeds. 

 AowtAetl'e'h^oM R^lng i s tne operation which gives the finish to most others 

 be inserted m it. that are performed on the soil, and without which, and the 

 besom, no garden could be kept in high order. One of the most.common pur- 

 poses to which raking is applied, is covering small seeds sown broad- cast ; 

 and this operation requires more care and skill in the operator, than any 

 other which is performed with the rake. If the ground has been raked 

 previously to sowing the seeds, its surface will be ribbed or covered with 

 very small furrows left by the teeth of the rake, at regular distances and 

 of uniform depth : the seed being scattered evenly over the surface, 

 will fall one-half in the furrows, and one-half on the small ridges between 

 them : if in raking afterwards the teeth of the rake could be made 

 to split the ridges between the furrows and do nothing more, the seed 

 would be perfectly and equally covered ; but owing to various causes, 

 and principally to the unavoidable treading of the soil by the feet of 

 the operator, it is next to impossible to effect this ; and in consequence of 

 more raking being required in the hard and depressed places than in the soft 

 ones, as well to loosen the soil as to raise it to the proper level, the seed there 

 becomes too deeply covered ; and a part being drawn from the places from 



