Book V. LABOURS OF THE SIMPLEST KIND. 509 



for separating and lifting them. Forking is used for two purposes ; for pulverising the 

 soil among growing crops, and for moving vegetable substances, such as faggots of wood, 

 sheaves of corn, hay, manure, &c. In the first case the operation is similar to diggin", 

 the only difference being that pulverisation is more attended to than reversing the surface • 

 in the other, the fork separates chiefly by drawing and lifting ; hence, for this purpose, a 

 round-pronged or (dung) fork produces least friction during the discharge of the forkful 

 and reinsertion, and a broad-pronged fork separates and lifts the soil more readily. Dry 

 weather is essentially requisite in forking soils, and most desirable for spreading manures, 

 but dunghills may be turned during rain with no great injury. 



3129. Dragging out dung or earth is performed by the dung-drag, and is adopted in 

 the case of distributing dung from a cart in regular portions or little heaps over a field. 

 When lime in a state of pulverisation, earth, or sand, is to be distributed in the same way, 

 a scraper or large hoe is used; and sometimes, for want of these, the dung-drag, aided by 

 the spade or common hoe. 



3130. Hand-hoeing is performed by drawing or thrusting the wedge or blade of the 

 draw or thrust hoe along the surface of the soil, so as to cut weeds at or under the 

 surface, and slightly to pulverise the soil. It is used for four purposes, sometimes 

 together, but in general separately : first, to loosen weeds or thin out plants, so that those 

 hoed up may die for want of nourishment, or be gathered or raked off, for which pur- 

 pose either the thrust or draw hoe may be used ; the second, to stir the soil, and for this 

 purpose, when no weeds require killing, the pronged hoe is preferable, as being thrust 

 deeper with less force, and as less likely to cut the roots of plants ; the third is to draw 

 up or accumulate soil about the stems of plants, for which purpose a hoe with a large 

 blade or shovel will produce most effect ; and the fourth is to form a hollow gutter or 

 drill in which to sow or insert the seeds of plants, for which a large or small draw-hoe 



may be used, according to the size of the seeds to be 

 ^13 buried. The use of the hoe for any of the above pur- 



poses requires dry weather. 



3131. Hoeing between rows of crops is somtimes performed by 

 what is called a hoe-plough, which is a small plough having a 

 share with double tins, drawn by one man, and pushed by 

 another. It is in use in India, and is sold in London under the 

 name of the Indian hoe-plough, but it is more for the exercise 

 of amateurs on free soils than for useful culture. In this way 

 a master may exercise both himself and his valet, and clear his 

 potatoes or turnip crop at the same time. The Dutch have a 

 hoe (fig. 513.) which is drawn and pushed at the same time, 

 for the purpose of cleaning walks, or scraping turf or mud from 

 roads or court-yards. 



3132. Hand-raking is performed by drawing through the surface of the soil, or over 

 it, a series of small equidistant wedges or teeth, either with a view to minute pul- 

 verisation, or to collecting herbage, straw, leaves, stones, or such other matters as do 

 not pass through the interstices of the teeth of the rake. The teeth of the rake being 

 placed nearly at right angles to the handle, it follows that the lower the handle is 

 held in performing the operation, the deeper will be the pulverisation, when that is 

 the object ; and, on the contrary, that the higher it is held, the interstices being 

 lessened, the fewer extraneous matters will pass through the teeth. The angle at 

 which the handle of the rake is held must therefore depend on the object in view ; 

 the medium is forty-five degrees. For all raking, dry weather is essentially requisite ; 

 and, for raking hay, the angle which the handle of the rake makes with the ground's 

 surface ought to be fifty degrees. 



3133. Scraping may be described as the drawing of a large broad blunt hoe along 

 the surface, for the pin-pose of collecting loose excrementitious or other useless or in- 

 jurious matters from roads, yards, or from grassy surfaces to be rolled or mown. The 

 Dutch hoe (Jig. 513.) is a good road and lawn scraper. 



3134. Sweeping is a mode of scraping with a bundle of flexible rods, twigs, or wires, 

 which enters better into the hollows of irregular surfaces, and performs the operation 

 of cleaning more effectually. In agriculture it is used in barns and in stables, though 

 shovelling is generally sufficient for the common stable and ox-house. 



3135. Screening, or sifting, earth or gravel, is an operation performed with the gravel- 

 sieve or earth screen, for separating the coarser from the finer particles. The materials 

 require to be dry, well broken, and then thrown loosely on the upper part of the screen, 

 which, being a grated inclined plane, in sliding down it, the smaller matters drop 

 through while the large ones pass on and accumulate at the bottom. In sifting, the 

 same effect is more completely, but more laboriously, produced, by giving the sieve a 

 circular motion with the arms. 



3136. Gathering is a very simple operation, generally performed by women and 

 children, as in taking up potatoes or other roots, or picking up stones, weeds, or other 

 matters considered injurious to the surface on which they lie or grow. 



3137. Cleaning roots or other matters is generally performed by washing, and, on 



