182 SOILS 



there is in it. It is not enough to hoe merely to 

 kill weeds, it should also save soil water and secure 

 all the other benefits of tillage. This means that 

 the soil should be stirred around the plants to a 

 nearly uniform depth, not merely stabbed deeply 

 in places and a thin layer of loose soil scattered over 

 the unstirred soil between. It also means that the 

 surface should be left nearly level, not in hog- 

 troughs. Many farmers who are careful enough 

 with their cultivating are slovenly with their hoeing. 

 Market gardeners, however, have learned that it 



Eays to put as thorough a man at work with the 

 oe as with the cultivator, 



Styles of Blades. The blade of the hoe used in 

 general farming does not vary much in size and 

 shape. The essential thing is to keep it sharp and 

 bright, which it will not be if hung up in the apple 

 tree all winter. The business hoe makes frequent 

 visits to the grindstone. As a general rule the blade 

 on a new hoe is too broad to work handily; when 

 it gets worn down an inch or two, it cuts the 

 soil easier and better. Hoe blades having rounded 

 teeth on the cutting edge are preferred by some. 

 Some gardeners have many hoes of different sizes 

 and shapes, some of them with blades only an inch 

 wide for picking out weeds between vegetables; 

 or with the handle inserted between two blades of 

 different widths. Others are shaped like a narrow 

 triangle; or heart-shape, with the lower end 

 notched; or with the blade reduced to the merest 

 hook, so that a stray weed can be tweaked from 

 the ground with a twist of the wrist. The handles 

 of some of these aristocratic hoes are knobbed on 

 the end and variously curved. This is too gingerly 

 work for most of us. The old-style hoe blade, 

 about three and one-half inches by six inches, 



