92 AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



corn and potato plowing, and generally should be followed by a 

 light corn-harrow. 



In certain crops, however, it is important to loosen the soil 

 more deeply than can be safely done by either of these, and the 

 skeleton plow is used, which, with a single narrow-stepping 

 horse or mule, can be put beam deep, sometimes at the first 

 stroke, and almost always at the second ; and though it throws 

 scarcely any furrow, yet it is well to follow it with a single 

 stroke of the corn-harrow. The use of some one or more of 

 these small plows, aided by a light corn-harrow, is of great 

 value to growing crops. If frequently and faithfully used, 

 scarcely any crop that is seasonably sown will be found to suf- 

 fer from any ordinary continuance of drought. 



HOEING. 



The directions so often repeated in this work, to " hoe fre- 

 quently and deeply," may seem to the inexperienced superflu- 

 ous ; it may be thought that hoeing is useful only for the pur- 

 pose of killing weeds. The cultivator of a garden could scarce- 

 ly make a greater mistake. It is admitted as a demonstrated 

 fact in vegetable physiology that plants receive their food 

 principally, if not entirely, by the spongioles, or extreme ves- 

 sels of their root-fibres. Now in the deep hoeing of crops, the 

 extending roots of the plant are cut, and every tender growing 

 root thus cut will in a few hours throw out several new ones, 

 pushing in various directions, and some of these being cut by 

 subsequent hoeings, the ramifications of the roots are greatly 

 increased, and in an equal, or perhaps even in a greater ratio, 

 their spongioles or mouths are multiplied. 



Again : modern science has shown that ammonia is the great 

 quickener and an essential supporter of vegetable life, and that 

 the atmosphere is the reservoir or chief source for supplying 

 it. By deep hoeing the soil is most thoroughly pulverized ; 

 it is so loosened that the young roots can seek their food with 

 facility ; it is opened to the air and dews of night, which bring 

 with them at once the ammonia which furnishes the material 

 of their food, and the moisture, combination with which is prob- 

 ably essential to its reception by the plant. (See Manures, p. 



