198 



HOE 



HOE 



more easily, and destroy weeds 

 and their roots more effectually. 



For the ease of the labourer, 

 hoes should be made as light as 

 is consistent with the needful de- 

 gree of strength : Their handles 

 especially should be made of some 

 light kind of wood, as ash, or white 

 maple, or a young tree of spruce. 

 Great and important use is made 

 in weeding between carrots, beets, 

 and other crops, that do not require 

 hilling, of the Dutch hoe, which is 

 used for cutting up weeds, the la- 

 bourer passing backwards, and 

 pushing the hoe forwards. It is 

 expeditious, and effectual, for 

 weeding. A small hand hoe, of 

 steel, not more than two inches 

 wide, and six inches long is excel- 

 lent for light weeding. For the 

 Horse //oe, see that article. 



HOEING, either burying seeds 

 in the earth with the hoe, or 

 breaking and stirring the soil, 

 chiefly when plants are growing 

 in it. 



This, after tillage, as 1 may call 

 it, has been found to be of great 

 advantage to almost every kind of 

 plants, and to some it is so neces- 

 sary that no crop is to be expected 

 without it. The deeper land is 

 hoed, the greater advantage do 

 plants receive from hoeing, if due 

 care be taken that their roots be 

 not disturbed, or too much cut to 

 pieces. 



The ends to be answered by 

 hoeing are chiefly these: — 1. To 

 destroy w^eds, which are always 

 ready to spring up in every soil, 

 and which would rob the cultivat- 

 ed plants of most of their food. 

 Scraping of the surface, if it be 



done frequently, may answer this 

 purpose; but to destroy the roots 

 of weeds, deeper hoeing is neces- 

 sary. 2. To keep the soil from 

 becoming too compact, which pre- 

 vents the roots exlendina them- 

 selves freely in search of their 

 food, at the same time keeping up 

 a fermentation, by which the ve- 

 getable food is concocted, and 

 brought into contact with the roots. 

 For this purpose, the deeper land 

 is hoed the better. But hoeing 

 should cease, or be only superfi- 

 cial, when the roots are so far ex- 

 tended as to be much injured by 

 hoeing. They will bear a little 

 cutting without injury. For where 

 a root is cut off, several new 

 branches will come in its place. 

 3. To render the soil more open 

 and porous, so that it shall greedi- 

 ly drink in the nightly dews, and 

 that rain may not run off, but readi- 

 ly soak in as it falls, and be retained. 

 Accordingly, the more and often- 

 er land is hoed, the more moisture 

 it retains, the better it bears 

 drought, and the more its plants 

 are nourished. 4. Another design 

 of hoeing, and which has not been 

 enough attended to, is to nourish 

 plants by drawing fresh soil near 

 to them, the effluvium of which 

 enters their pores above ground, 

 and increases their growth. 5. At 

 the same time, earthing of plants 

 makes them stand more firmly, 

 and increases their pasture in the 

 spots where the roots most abound. 

 At the same time it prevents the 

 drying of the earth down to the 

 roots. 



But earthing, or hilling of plants, 

 should be done with caution. 



