HOW TO HOE. 89 



The Man with the Hoe. The use of the hoe at different 

 seasons in the California garden and the contrast between 

 summer hoeing as practised in arid and humid climates 

 is so strikingly illustrative, of the sort of tillage which 

 gives in California rank summer growth without rain, 

 that a few comments will be indulged in. 



The first and most obvious reflection which comes to 

 one who does summer hoeing in an arid land is that the 

 handling of the hoe which he practised in his boyhood 

 in eastern garden or cornfield is not the hoeing which 

 avails most now and here. The light, shallow stroke which 

 fell just below the root crown of the weed, stirred the 

 immediate surface a little and left the field clean, used to 

 be the touch for eastern hoeing, and a man could almost 

 do it at walking speed for hours upon hours. Except a 

 little extra deep work, which was called for when the oc- 

 casional short droughts threatened, this shallow weed- 

 cutting was sufficient to give the crop the upper hand in 

 the struggle with weeds, and the frequent showers kept 

 the surface moist enough to prevent baking. 



It is to be inferred from recent reports that there is less 

 shallow hoeing done now than a generation ago at the 

 east, and deeper summer cultivation has been found profit- 

 able there. However this may be, it is clear that shallow 

 hoeing is a delusion and a snare in this country. Practice 

 it through the spring and as long as the weeds start, and 

 your garden surface will be dusty. Think then content- 

 edly about what you have heard of a mulch of dust-retain- 

 ing moisture. Can it be possible, instead of shooting up- 

 ward, the plant just holds its own and then goes backward, 

 wilting, yellowing its leaves, and all but dying in its dis- 

 tress? Surely there must be a worm at the root. The hoe 

 is seized and brought down upon the soil at an angle and 

 with a force it has not known all summer. How the dust 

 flies from the surface, and how the hoe flies from the 

 hard-pan just beneath the dust as though it had been 

 brought down upon a marble slab. Then there come to 



