274 SATURDAY IN MY GARDEN 



ously. These must be kept in check at all costs, and therefore 

 it is that I sound the praises of the hoe. It is an indispens- 

 able gardening implement, which I am afraid is not used by the 

 average gardener with anything like the frequency that it ought 

 to be. 



It serves two useful purposes. The first, as I have indicated, 

 is the eradication of weeds ; and the next and it is hardly less 

 important is the preservation of a fine tilth on the surface of the 

 soil. 



Nothing conduces to the steady, uninterrupted progress of plants, 

 whether they be vegetables or flowers, during early summer so 

 much as the constant breaking up of the surface of the soil in 

 which they are growing. Nor is this difficult to understand. If 

 the ground be kept porous the free admission of the oxygen in the 

 air is made possible. This acts with beneficial effect upon the 

 plant food constituents in the soil, and increases its fertility to a 

 degree that will surprise the gardener who has never tried the 

 experiment. 



Still another benefit which frequent hoeing brings in its train 

 is that it conserves the moisture in the ground by preventing 

 evaporation. If the surface be baked hard by the sun, and if no 

 effort be made to loosen it, the moisture is brought to the surface 

 by capillary attraction, and the roots especially in the case of 

 plants that thrust their roots deep into the ground are starved. 



It is after heavy rain that the soil is most likely to become 

 baked by the sun, and it is this state of things which must be 

 obviated by the use of the hoe. If the ground be lightly broken 

 up it will then be in a condition to benefit to the fullest extent 

 by the next shower. 



And now for the weeds. They are worth studying if the 

 gardener is to wage a successful warfare against them. If he has 

 been attacking them long enough he will soon come to recognise 

 that there are two classes those which disappear if the tops be 

 cut off and those that persist in making their reappearance no 

 matter how often decapitation be accomplished. The first are 

 annuals and the second are perennials. Some of the latter are 



