292 
HOEING, RAKING, AND WEEDING. 
one, it is usually filled in by using the back 
of the rake. 
To effect these various operations three 
kinds of hoes, and various sizes of each, are 
employed. The most common is the draw- 
hoe, which consists of a blade or plate of iron 
attached to a handle, at an angle less than a 
right angle ; the handle is usually four feet 
long, and the blade of varied size, and shaped 
according to the use for which it is intended ; 
for cutting weeds it is made wide and shal- 
low ; for drawing soil, deeper. Small sizes 
Avith short (or long) handles are used for hoe- 
ing between advancing crops. The thrust, or 
Dutch hoe, consists of a thin plate of iron 
attached somewhat obliquely by means of a 
bow to a long handle j it is used by pushing 
it from the operator, the draw-hoe being, as 
its name implies, used in the opposite w^ay. 
The thrust-hoe is proper for cutting up weeds 
on light ground, and also for hoeing borders 
without treading on them, as they can be used 
from the walk, unless the borders or beds are 
very wide. In using them too, the operator 
walks backwards, so that if obliged to tread 
on the ground, he breaks up his footmarks ; 
with the draw-hoe, on the other hand, the 
operator walks forwards, and, consequently, 
leaves his footmarks untouched. The thrust- 
hoe is not however so well adapted for heavy 
work as the draw-hoe. 
For the express purpose of breaking up 
the soil, another sort of hoe is used ; this is 
called the crane-necked hoe. It consists of a 
smallish, thick, egg-shaped piece of iron, at- 
tached by means of a curved stalk resembling 
a swan's neck, to the handle ; the point of 
this hoe loosens and breaks up the soil to a 
considerable depth. Small sizes, with short 
handles, are made for use among small closely 
drilled crops. This kind of hoe is not well 
adapted for cutting up weeds. 
Hoeing should always be done when the 
soil is sufficiently dry not to adhere much to 
the implement in using it ; if the ground has 
to be trampled on, it should be so dry as not 
to be much consolidated, and where practica- 
ble, the places trampled on should be forked 
up. For killing weeds, of course only the 
driest weather is to be chosen ; in moist 
showery weather the weeds strike root afresh, 
and not one in ten is killed. 
RAKES AND RAKING. 
The operation of raking consists in comb- 
ing the surface of the soil, as it were, with the 
implement called the rake, which is formed 
by a number of parallel iron teeth set at equal 
distances along a slender bar of iron, fixed 
transversely to a long handle. Various sizes 
for different uses are manufactured. The 
operation of raking is chiefly resorted to for 
the purpose of combing off the surface weeds 
that have been cut up with the hoe ; or for 
combing off large stones and rough lumps of 
soil, when a finer surface is required ; or' 
sometimes merely for the purpose of freshen- 
ing up the surface of the soil for the sake of 
neatness. The rake is also used to " rake in" 
various seeds that are sown broadcast. 
Raking, when practised to clear off weeds, 
should always be done in dry weather if pos- 
sible, for if the soil is very moist a good deal 
of soil is disadvantageously removed with 
them. The rake is to be used very lightly, 
first being passed backwards and forwards 
once or twice to free the weeds as entirely as 
possible from the soil, and then pulled towards 
the operator, bringing the weeds along with it, 
and leaving the ground behind quite clean. It 
is sometimes necessary when rainy weather 
supervenes on hoeing, to take advantage of 
the first dry day, and go over the ground with 
the rake, passing it backwards and forwards, 
in order to loosen up the weeds and destroy 
any fresh hold they may have taken of the 
soil. If, however, the soil is hoed — as it 
should be — before the weeds attain any con- 
siderable size, it will be unnecessary to rake 
the ground, as they will dry up and perish ; 
unless, indeed, it be in the flower borders or 
pleasure ground, where the rake must neces- 
sarily follow the hoe, if only to secure neat- 
ness and an orderly appearance. 
AVhere the object is to produce a finer sur- 
face, the operation should be performed when 
the soil is in a medium state of moisture ; the 
lumps of soil then break easily, and the rough 
stones are readily collected by means of the 
rake. The rough lumps of soil which it is 
partly the object of this operation to break 
down, should be reduced by striking them 
with the back of the rake. In this way, un- 
less the soil is very stubborn, the whole sur- 
face may be rendered proportionately fine to 
the width between the teeth of the rake. 
Under these circumstances, it should be the 
object to remove as little soil as possible along 
with the stones and rubbish collected by the 
rake. It is also by no means desirable to re- 
move assiduously — as is often done — every 
stone which is observed on the surface. In 
the flower borders it is necessary to do so to 
some extent on the ground of neatness ; but 
in the kitchen-garden nothing more than the 
very largest should be removed, and these by 
hand-picking. In fact, if a garden is well 
managed, and the weeds are not allowed to 
get the upper hand, there will be but little to 
rake off the soil at any time, though the rake 
wall be useful to collect together such remains 
of the crops as may be left ; these remains 
should be either dug in as green manure, or 
