HOEING, RAKING, AND WEEDING-, 
293 
what is, perhaps, generally preferable, charred 
and distributed over the ground in the form 
of charcoal and ashes. To rake the soil with 
the view of obtaining a finer surface when it 
is either wet or very dry is a useless task : in 
the former case the lumps and particles of 
soil adhere together, and more harm than 
good is done by the attempt to separate them; 
in the latter, the lumps, unless the soil is very 
light, will prove so stubborn as to render the 
attempt ineffectual. When in a medium 
state, however, they break readily if worked 
with the teeth and back of the rake. 
The " raking in" of seeds is done by pass- 
ing the rake backwards and forwards several 
times over the whole surface, leaving the 
latter at last as level as possible. Of course 
previous to the sowing of the seeds, the sur- 
face of the soil should have been rendered 
moderately fine by the process just described. 
It is not, however, common now to sow crops 
broadcast, and it is such only that are usually 
" raked in" in the way referred to. It is 
considered preferable to sow every kind of 
crop in drills, and the seeds are then covered 
in by levelling the soil with the back of the 
rake. 
The rakes to which we have hitherto 
referred are called garden rakes, but there is 
another kind used on lawns, called the daisy- 
rake. This is employed to remove the flowers 
of the daisy, which sometimes abound on 
lawns, and are apt to spring up into flower 
during the summer more frequently than the 
process of mowing is resorted to. The daisy- 
rake consists of a large thin plate of iron, of 
which the edge is somewhat turned up and 
cut into teeth, which are open only towards 
the edge, the spaces between them gradually 
narrowing. When this implement is passed 
over the surface of the lawn the daisy heads 
are collected by the teeth-like openings in the 
edge of the plate, and are of course nipped off 
by the part where the teeth are closed toge- 
ther. It is useful sometimes to save the 
trouble of mowing when the grass does not 
grow rapidly, the daisies being looked upon 
as a blemish to a properly-kept lawn. 
WEEDS AND WEEDING. 
In the fullest sense, the operation of weed- 
ing may be understood to include every 
means of destroying the weeds which infest 
gardens. According to this interpretation, 
the process of hoeing would be properly con- 
sidered as an act of weeding, when it is per- 
formed for the purpose of destroying weeds. 
We, however, here restrict the meaning of 
the term to what is sometimes called hand- 
weeding. 
Hand-weeding is the process of pulling up 
by hand, with the view to their removal and 
destruction, those weeds which occur under 
circumstances where the hoe cannot be used 
with safety or good effect. This chiefly 
occurs in the case of seed-beds, and among 
patches of young thickly-set plants which 
may have been transplanted. Where gravel 
or other well-constructed walks, too, become 
weedy, hand-weeding is resorted to ; and in 
the case of pitched court-yards also, it is 
sometimes necessary to have x'ecourse to hand- 
weeding. 
Seed-beds, or seed-plots, should be very 
carefully weeded, whether they form patches 
of a yard or more in extent, such as cabbage, 
brocoli, lettuce, and other young plants for 
transplanting are raised upon ; or whether, 
as in the case of onions, carrots, &c. which 
are sown where they remain, they occupy 
large spaces of the kitchen-garden quarters. 
Seed-pots, pans, and boxes, either of culinary 
or floral articles, also require careful and 
attentive weeding. In the first and last of 
the cases alluded to, hand-weeding is almost 
the only available means of effecting the re- 
moval of the weeds which spring up ; but in 
the other case the crops are, at the present 
day, usually sown in drills, so that a narrow- 
bladed hoe can be used to effect the required 
result with greater facility ; and when they 
happen to be sown broadcast, as the plants 
themselves require thinning to regular dis- 
tances, a narrow-bladed hoe is still used to 
destroy the weeds and thin the crop at the 
same time. 
The necessity of removing weeds from 
among young seedling plants is occasioned by 
the rapid growth which most weeds make, as 
compared with the crops sown. Naturally 
adapted to barren and waste ground, they 
grow with amazing rapidity and luxuriance 
in the richly manured and well wrought soil 
of the garden, and thus, if not early removed, 
they would smother and destroy the delicate 
seedlings among which they spring up. Weeds 
too are so prolific, that besides their rapid 
growth when germinated, a crop of the en 
springs into existence mueh sooner than the 
generality of garden seeds will do, and conse- 
quently, by the time the latter make their ap- 
pearance above ground, many of the former 
are strong and well established. It is then 
especially that their removal should be at- 
tended to. This is, however, better not too 
long delayed, because the larger the weeds 
are suffered to grow, the more numerous their 
roots become, and the greater disturbance or 
breaking up of the soil is occasioned by the 
process of removing them. This often does 
injury to the seeds among which they occur, 
for if the soil is left thus broken up and 
lightened, the probability is, that some of the 
seeds will be prematurely exposed in a half- 
