324 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



JULT 



HOEING. 



This is an item of farm work not yet fully ap- 

 preciated by a large number of our farmers. It 

 involves some exceedingly interesting and im- 

 portant principles that are little understood, and 

 which the farmer cannot well afford to neglect, if 

 he means to secure a profit from his crops. 



In the first place, if the ground is not frequent- 

 ly hoed, it soon becomes covered with what we 

 call weeds, that is, plants of a more hardy nature 

 than those which we cultivate, which take posses- 

 sion of the soil, both above and below, — appro- 

 priating its fertilizing qualities, crowding and 

 shading the young corn or other plants, and final- 

 ly overpowering them so that they dwindle awhile 

 and come to naught. 



Look at the loss sustained by such a practice ; 

 it is no less than that of preparing and hauling 

 the manure, spreading it out, plowing the ground, 

 furrowing, planting and covering, and the waste of 

 seed and loss of land ! When proper cultivation 

 is neglected, all these are not the onhj losses, for 

 a crop of rank weeds is produced, which scatters 

 its seeds far and near, to exhaust the soil and vex 

 the husbandman for many future years ! 



Is not the neglect to hoe and properly cultivate 

 a crop after it has come up, a most short-sighted 

 and suicidal policy ? The same policy, pursued 

 in mercantile affairs, would ruin the most skillful 

 merchants in the land. 



The old adage, — "One year's seeding, makes 

 nine years' weeding," is one that ought ever to 

 be borne in mind. A single weed, oftentimes, if 

 permitted to grow and mature its seeds, will be 

 the means of ultimately abstracting from the soil 

 as much alimentary matter as would suffice for 

 the support of a valuable crop of wheat or corn. 

 Being indigenous, weeds are invariably strong 

 feeders, and require a vast amount of nutriment 

 for their support ; hence their well-known and 

 powerfully exhausting effect upon soils. The 

 thistle, when permitted to obtain root, soon oc- 

 cupies the land to the entire exclusion of more 

 desirable vegetation, and the same is the case 

 with several other species of plants. Like vi- 

 cious habits, they flourish by indulgence, till final- 

 ly they usurp complete control, and bid defiance 

 to every effort. 



But this is not all. Suppose the land is free 

 from the seeds of foreign plants, and no weeds 

 make their appearance among the crops, is hoe- 

 ing unnecessary ? By a great many farmers it is 

 thought to be so, which shows that the prime ob- 

 ject in hoeing is supposed to be the eradication 

 of weeds only. Let us see if this is the case. 



Land that has been plowed, harrowed, and 

 brought to a pretty smooth surface, and left in 

 that condition, soon has a crust formed upon it 

 in consequence of the evaporation of the mois- 



ture which it contained. This crust will vary 

 from a quarter of an inch to an inch in thickness, 

 and on some soils becomes so tenacious that a 

 cake of it several inches in diameter may be tak- 

 en up. When land is in this condition, it is not 

 in a proper state to receive the fertilizing influ- 

 ences which always surround it, and of which it 

 would avail itself under more favorable circum- 

 stances. 



1. If the season is a dry one, and showers are 

 few and light, that crust will lead off most of the 

 water into low places, instead of receiving it into 

 the soil, as it would if the surface were light and 

 porous. 



2. When in this condition the roots of the crop 

 are especially deprived of three things, viz. : 



The moisture which the rain-water supplies, — 

 the ammonia which is carried along with it, and 

 the heat which the rain-water contains. 



The first is indispensable to plants ; the second 

 is a powerful stimulant, as it renders other mat- 

 ter soluble which feed the roots ; and the third 

 supplies a bottom heat for them, which keeps the 

 plants growing when cold and chilling winds are 

 passing over the surface. These several advan- 

 tages are in a great measure lost by neglecting 

 frequently to stir the soil. 



3. Suppose a drought prevails. Will an un- 

 hoed field resist its influences, as long as a field 

 well hoed ? Nothing like it ; because when the 

 rain falls, it is mostly led off on the impervious 

 crust, unless it comes in the character of a storm, 

 and continues for many hours. If well hoed, 

 however, the surface is light, porous, and in a 

 condition to be influenced by several causes. 



First, by the air. The atmosphere not only 

 hangs over our fields, but rests upon the surface 

 with a pressure of fifteen pounds to an inch. This 

 air, or atmosphere, is always filled with moisture, 

 as may be demonstrated at noon of any hot day 

 by filling a pitcher with cold water. In a few 

 moments the outside of the pitcher is covered 

 with beautiful transparent drops. Where do they 

 come from ? Why, the pitcher sweats, exclaim 

 several about the table ! But no water passes 

 through it, certainly, as moisture does through 

 the pores of the skin when we sweat. Nor was 

 any water spilled upon the outside of it, when it 

 was filled, although the drops have now trickled 

 down its sides and wet a place a foot square in 

 the table-cloth. Wonderful ! How came it there ? 

 No human eye is keen enough to detect the al- 

 chemy of the transmutation ! The pitcher being 

 filled with cold water, becomes a condenser, and 

 when the warm air touches it, its vapor, or mois- 

 ture, is condensed and formed into drops on the 

 outside, and this proves that the air is full of 

 moisture. Now, in a well cultivated field, this is 

 precisely the operation of the air upon it during 



