654! 



General Notices. 



soil with less draught than Finlayson's harrow; and, by the application of a 

 parallel movement, the tines, which may or may not be hoes, may be regu- 

 lated to work at any depth, 

 from 1 to 8 or 9 in. This is ^ 

 done instantaneously, and with 

 mathematical exactness. In 

 gardening, the Spanish hoe 

 (Vol. II. p. 233. fig. 64.), the 

 Grenoble hoe {fig. 138. a), 

 the pick hoe (6), and the 

 Sarthe hoe (c), with some 

 others of the French {d ef\ 

 may be considered as the 

 nearest approach to this ap- 

 plication of pronged instru- 

 ments. The French have a 

 great variety ofhoes(j%5.139, 

 ] 40.), because a greater part 

 of the agriculture of France 

 alternates with a sort of gar- 

 den culture. 



The hoe, M. Thouin observes (Cours de Culture, &c.), is an implement 

 of universal use, and by it the surface of the soil can be stirred to the 



139 



C^^ 



^^^i> ^Je^ 



depth of from 3 to 7 in. at less expense of time and human strength than 



by any other manual implement 

 whatever. It is among manual 

 implements what the plough is 

 among implements drawn by 

 cattle. Pronged hoes are par- 

 ticularly suitable for gravelly, 

 stony, and clayey soils, and those 

 full of root weeds ; but, in any 

 soil, they require less strength on 

 the part of the operator than 

 common hoes. The vineyards 

 of France are mostly worked with 

 hoes; and as the operator has 

 most power over the implement 

 when he is bent with his head 

 half way to the ground, this po- 

 sition is said to produce anchy- 

 losis of the spine, and to deform 



