ROLLING, PLANKING, AND HOEING 185 



the ground, cutting from one-half inch to one 

 inch below the surface. The blade varies from 

 half an inch to four inches in diameter and is 

 rectangular, crescent or looped. The style most 

 commonly used is attached to a long straight handle. 

 A better style for some purposes is attached behind 

 a wheel, thus becoming in reality a wheel hoe. 

 The handle style is better after the tops of the 

 plants begin to lean toward the middle of the row. 

 The scuffle hoe, like the common hoe, is a poor 

 tool for making a mulch, but a most excellent tool 

 for killing weeds. It barely skims the ground, 

 cutting off weeds just below the surface and run- 

 ning very close to the row; but the soil is not in- 

 verted or loosened much. Very often it is simply 

 sliced. An excellent plan for tilling close planted 

 crops is to alternate the hand cultivator and the 

 scuffle hoe. They complement one another; the 

 former makes a mulch, but some of the larger 

 weeds may slip through its teeth; the latter cuts 

 off the weeds, but is a poor mulch-making tool. 



In addition to these larger hand tools there are 

 many kinds of hand weeders for even finer work. 

 Some are patterned after the original hand weeder, 

 the outspread fingers. Others are scuffle hoes 

 with a small blade and short handle. Where it is 

 necessary to do much hand weeding close to the 

 plants, and it sometimes is in market gardening, 

 these little tillage tools will save the fingers and 

 facilitate the work. 



SELECTING FARM TOOLS 



Before leaving the subject of tillage tools, a word 

 about the selection and care of farm tools in general 

 may not be amiss. The first cost of farm tools is 



