HOEING, RAKING, AND WEEDING. 
291 
■with which they are charged. It has been 
very quaintly but justly remarked, that if 
we must have weeds kept in gardens, either 
as curiosities or as botanical illustrations, a 
compartment of the garden should be set 
apart for them ; and they should be culti- 
vated in the same way and with the same care 
as other crops, and not as at present allowed 
to grow amongst, and overrun, and choke, the 
latter more useful productions. 
To render hoeing what it should be, as 
regards its effects on the soil as a prevention 
of weeds, it must be a continually recui'ring 
operation. It is not enough to hoe once just 
as or before the weeds break through the sur- 
face, and then after^vards to allow them to 
grow up to maturity. This will be of no 
utility whatever. As soon in the spring as 
the warmth of the sun excites the latent 
germs which have been hidden in the soil, 
and bids them spring forth into life and vi- 
gour, so soon in each recurring season must 
the hoeing of the surface be commenced ; and 
at least as often as fresh races spring up 
from amongst the soil, must the hoe be put in 
requisition throughout the summer, and until 
the process of germination is locked up in the 
icy chains of winter. 
But besides the mere prevention of weeds, 
there is another object in hoeing the surface 
of the soil, and that is, to break up and loosen 
the crust, in order to admit atmospheric in- 
fluences, to equalize the moisture, and to 
raise the temperature of the soil. For these pur- 
poses the soil can never be too often stirred 
up. In destroying weeds merely a very 
shallow skimming of the surface is sufficient ; 
but for the latter purpose deep hoeing is essen- 
tial ; and so that the roots of the particular 
kind of crop which may be contiguous are 
not injured, the deeper this can be done the 
better. Sometimes even the hoe may be 
assisted in this particular by forking up 
lightly the spaces between the crops. This 
treatment must begin as soon as the plants 
emerge from the soil, and must be carried 
on and repeated from time to time during 
their progress, so that at no time the surface 
may be hard and caked, but loose, and free, 
and porous. Neither the surface soil, nor 
that immediately below it within reach of 
the hoe, must ever be allowed to get conso- 
lidated. 
The practice of keeping the surface of the 
soil thus broken up and loosened among all 
kinds of crops is very conducive to their 
growth. The atmosphere is then enabled to 
permeate the soil with freedom, and this is 
found to be of much importance to the health 
of plants ; indeed, in a consolidated soil, or 
where, from the presence of water, the air has 
not free access, vegetation generally will not 
thrive. By this means, too, the soil is ren- 
dered far more equable as regards moisture 
than when consolidated, and this is especially 
the case (as it also then becomes especially 
necessary) during dry weather. Without en- 
tering into the philosophy of the matter, which 
would occupy too much space, it will be suffi- 
cient to state the fact, that a period of drought 
has far less effiict on vegetation, when the sur- 
face of the soil is frequently loosened up, than 
Avhen it is allowed to remain, as it then would 
usually become — hard and consolidated. And 
then again, the loosening of the surface has 
a similar effect with respect to the tempera- 
ture of the soil which it has in regard to its 
moisture. These advantages, and perhaps 
others, are secured by the free use of the hoe ; 
and they are of great importance to all kinds 
of crops. 
Earthing up. — The hoe is also employed 
in the slighter processes of earthing up, that 
is, of drawing soil about the base of the stems 
of such culinai'y crops as peas, beans, cauli- 
flowers, brocoli, potatoes, &c. Celery and 
some few other crops which are earthed up 
for the purpose of blanching them, are done in 
a different way. The object of the earthing 
up here referred to appears to be various : 
sometimes, as in the case of early peas, it is 
done to shelter them, and they are then 
earthed most liberally on the most exposed 
side : in he case of potatoes, it is done with 
a view of supplying a mass of light soil in 
which the underground stems that produce 
the useful parts of the plant, that is, the tubers, 
may have room to run and form these tubers, 
which become useless as food if pushed above 
the surface, and thus exposed to the air and 
light ; for this purpose a flat broad ridge is 
preferable to the sharp narrow ones -which are 
often seen. Some of the other crops appear to 
have the earth drawn up to their base with 
the view of supporting them, but the benefit 
is not veiy obvious ; and it is probable that 
much of the benefit that is secured results 
from the mere stirring and loosening of the 
soil which necessarily takes place. 
Drawing drills for seeds is another opera- 
tion performed by the hoe ; it consists in clear- 
ing out by means of the dr.aw-hoe, used corner- 
wise, a nari'ow channel of uniform depth, the 
hoe being guided by the garden line stretched 
quite tight in the direction the drills are re- 
quired ; a section of such a channel would 
represent two sides of a triangle. The earth 
is forced out by the operation chiefly on one 
side of the drill ; and if a deep one, after the 
seeds are deposited it is usually filled in by 
walking astride the drill, and pushing in the 
soil with the side of each foot alternately, the 
top being afterwards roughly levelled with 
the back of a rake. If the drill is a shallow 
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