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hoe and do it much better. It is noticeable that 

 where hand labour is cheap, as in parts of the South, 

 a much larger proportion of the farm tillage is done 

 with the hoe man where labour is dear, as it is in 

 most parts of the North and West. A negro and 

 a hoe is one of the typical scenes of the South. 

 It is likely that the hoe will become of still less 

 importance in farming, as we learn better ways of 

 circumventing the weeds before they are big 

 and as we are forced to perfect other means 

 of growing crops with as little hand labour as 

 possible. 



Aside from its use as an aid to planting, which 

 is constantly lessened by the increasing use of plant- 

 ing machines, the hoe will always be useful for two 

 purposes ; to kill large weeds that have escaped the 

 cultivator and to stir the soil close to the plants 

 where the cultivator teeth cannot work without 

 danger of injuring the plants. The hoe is a very 

 poor tool for making a mulch; it stirs the ground 

 deeply in some places, lightly in others and usually 

 parts of the surface are left wholly undisturbed, or 

 are raised slightly by the passing of the blade be- 

 neath them. It does not lift, crumble and invert 

 the soil, as do cultivator teeth, unless the soil is very 

 mellow and dry. As an implement for conserving 

 moisture, therefore, the hoe should be used only 

 where a cultivator cannot be used; that is, close 

 to the plants. 



Hoeing to Kill Weeds. For killing large weeds 

 the hoe has no equal, but this is an expensive way 

 of killing them. Most of them can be killed when 

 very small by frequent shallow cultivation. There 

 are various styles of cultivator teeth and attach- 

 ments to cultivators that are designed to skim be- 

 low the surface and cut off large weeds. These 



