74 TROPICAL AGRICULTURE chap. 



rubbish, and for breaking up the soil after it has been dug up 

 and turned over. 



The Hoe is also an implement used very extensively in 

 the West Indies. It varies both in size and shape, but the 

 one most in use is a plate of iron seven inches long and 

 about six inches broad, sharpened at the cutting edge, and 

 fixed, at somewhat less than a right angle, to a handle about 

 Utility of the four feet long. It is used for digging, for turning over the 

 soil, for weeding, and for drawing up earth to the roots of 

 plants. A strong man can do a great deal of work with a 

 hoe in the course of a day, and in places where a plough 

 cannot be used it is simply an invaluable instrument for 

 tillage operations. 



The Spade is a flat blade of iron fixed to a handle about 



two feet nine inches long. At the upper edge of the blade, 



close to the insertion of the handle, a narrow piece of strong 



iron — called the tread — is fixed so as to allow the foot of the 



The spade Operator to push the spade into the ground. The spade is 



work^than'^ not much used in the West Indies, but it is a very valuable 



the plough, implement, and it really does better work than the ordinary 



plough. The soil is dug about eight or nine inches deep, 



and the spadeful of earth is thrown forward, being turned 



as it is thrown, so as to leave the under surface of the soil 



uppermost. 



The Fork is shaped somewhat like a spade, except that 

 instead of a blade it has from three to five strong pointed 

 iron prongs, called tines^ at least an inch in width. It is a 

 The fork rnost uscful ^plement, and for digging operations it is by 

 preferred to j-^any pcrsons preferred to the spade, inasmuch as it is easier 

 to use, it pulverizes the soil better, it does not so readily cut 

 or injure the roots of cultivated plants, and in most soils the 

 clods of earth can be turned over as easily with the fork as 

 with the spade. It is used also for stirring up the earth 

 around the roots of plants, and for " forking in " farm-yard 

 manure and leaf moulds. 



