III.J THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 91 



it feeds them : it raises food for their roots to livp. 

 upon. A mere flat-hoeing does nothing but keep 

 down the weeds. The hoeing when the plants are 

 become stout, should be deep ; and, in general, with 

 a hoe that has spanes instead of a mere flat plate 

 In short, a sort of prong in the posture of a hoe 

 And the spanes of this prong-hoe may be longer, 

 or shorter, according to the nature of the crop to be 

 hoed. Deep-hoeing is enough in some cases ; but, 

 in others, digging- is necessary to produce a fine 

 and full crop. If any body will have a piece of 

 Cabbages, and will dig between the rows of one 

 half of them, twice during their growth, and let the 

 other half of the piece have nothing but a flat-hoe- 

 ing, that person will find that the half which has 

 been digged between, will, when the crop is ripe, 

 weigh nearly, if not quite, twice as much as the 

 other half. But, why need this be said in an Indian 

 Corn country, where it is so well known, that, with- 

 out being ploughed between, the corn will produce 

 next to nothing ! 



181. It may appear, that, to dig thus amongst 

 growing plants is to cut off*, or tear olF, their roots, 

 of which the ground is full. This is really the case, 

 and this does great good ; for the roots, thus cut 

 asunder, shoot again from the plant side, find new 

 food, and send, instantly, fresh vigour to the plant. 

 The effect of this tillage is quite surprizing. We 

 are hardly aware of its power in producing vegeta- 

 tion ; and we are still less aware of the distance, to 

 which the roots of plants extend in every direction. 



182. MR. TULL, the father of the drill-husband- 

 ry, gives the following account of the manner, in 

 which he discovered the distance to which certain 

 roots extend. I should observe here, that he was 

 led to think of the drilling of crops in the fields of 



