April, 1911 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
255 
1 
various types of harrow. The best type of hoe for use after the 
spade is the wide, deep-bladed type. In most soils, however, this 
work may be done more expeditiously with the hook or prong- 
hoe (see illustration). With this the soil can be thoroughly pul¬ 
verized to a depth of several inches. In using either, be careful 
not to pull up manure or trash turned under by the spade, as all 
such material will quickly rot away in the soil and furnish the 
best sort of plant food. I should think that our energetic manu¬ 
facturers would make a prong-hoe with heavy side blades, like 
those of the spading fork, but I have never seen such an imple¬ 
ment, either in use or advertised. 
What the prong-hoe is to the spade, the harrow is to the plow. 
For general purposes use one that is adjustable; and for ground 
at all mellow it will be the only one necessary. Set it, for the 
first time over, to cut in deep, and then for leveling, it will leave 
the soil in such excellent condition that a light hand-raking (or, 
for large areas, a good smoothing harrow) will prepare it for the 
finest of seeds, such as onions and carrots. Of disc harrows there 
are a great many makes. The salient feature of the disc type 
is that it can tear up no manure, grass or trash, even when these 
are but partly turned under by the plow. For this 
reason it is especially useful on sod or other rough 
ground. The best and most convenient harrow for 
putting on the finishing touches, and for leveling off 
and fining the surface of the soil, is the lever spike- 
tooth type. Any of the harrows mentioned above 
(except one or two makes of smoothing harrows), 
and likewise the prong-hoe, will have to be followed 
by the iron rake when preparing the ground for 
small-seeded garden vegetables. Get the sort with 
what is termed the bow-head (see illustration) in¬ 
stead of one in which the head is fastened directly 
to the end of the handle. It is less likely to get 
broken and easier to use. There is quite a knack 
in manipulating even a garden rake, which will 
come only with practice. Don't rake as though you 
were gathering up leaves or grass. The secret in 
using the garden rake is not to gather things up. 
Small stones and lumps of earth, and so forth, you 
of. course wish to remove. Keep these raked off 
ahead of where you are leveling the soil, which is 
accomplished with a backward-and-forward move¬ 
ment of the rake. 
jThe tool-house of every garden should contain a 
seed-drill. Labor which is otherwise tedious and 
difficult is rendered by it mere play, and it is done better. The 
operations of making the row, opening the furrow, dropping the 
seed at the proper depth and distance, covering immediately with 
fresh earth, and 
firming the soil, 
are all done at one 
swoop and as fast 
as you can walk! 
It will even drop 
seeds in hills, nor 
is this all: it may 
be had as part of a 
combination m a - 
chine, which, after 
your seeds are 
planted—with each 
row neatly rolled 
on top and plainly 
visible — may be at 
once transformed 
into a wheel-hoe, 
that will save you 
Select a bow-head rake rather than one 
in which the teeth-bar is fastened directly 
to the shaft. At the right is the prong-hoe 
The spading-fork de¬ 
serves to be better 
known 
Four types of hoe: the scuffle, the heart- 
shaped, the short and the common hoe 
as much time in car¬ 
ing for your plants 
as the seed-drill did 
in planting your 
seed. With this 
equipment hoeing 
drudgery disappears. 
The attachments 
which may be had 
for such an imple¬ 
ment are so many 
and so varied in use¬ 
fulness that it would 
require an entire ar¬ 
ticle to detail their 
special advantages 
and methods of use. 
The catalogues describing them will give you many valuable sug¬ 
gestions ; and other ways of utilizing them will discover them¬ 
selves to you in your work. 
Valuable as the wheel hoe is, however, and va¬ 
ried in its scope of work, the time-tried hand hoe 
cannot be entirely dispensed with. An accompany¬ 
ing photograph shows four distinct types, all of 
which will pay for themselves in a garden of mod¬ 
erate size. The one on the right is the one most 
generally seen ; next it is a modified form which 
personally I prefer for all light work, such as ioos- 
ening soil and cutting out seeds. It is lighter and 
smaller; quicker and easier to handle ; next this is 
the Warren, or heart-shaped hoe, specially valuable 
in opening and covering drills for seed, such as 
beans, peas or corn. The scuffle hoe, or scarifer, 
which completes the quartet, is used between narrow 
rows for shallow work, such as cutting off small 
weeds and breaking up the crust. It has been less 
frequently needed since the advent of the wheel hoe, 
but when crops are too large to admit of the use 
of the latter, the scuffle hoe is still an indispensable 
time-saver. 
There remains one task connected with garden¬ 
ing that is a bugbear. That is hand-weeding. To 
get down on one's hands and knees in the blistering 
hot dusty soil, with the perspiration trickling down 
one’s nose, and pick small weedlets • from among 
tender plantlets, is not at all a pleasant recreation. There are, 
however, several sorts of small weeders which lessen the work 
considerably. One of the many types is shown herewith. One 
type or another will seem preferable, according to different con¬ 
ditions of soil and methods of work. Personally, I prefer the one 
illustrated for general use. The angle blade makes it possible to 
cut very near to small plants, and between close-growing plants; 
while the strap over one finger leaves fingers free for weeding 
without dropping the instrument. 
There are two things to be kept in mind about hand weeding 
which will reduce this work to the minimum. First, never let the 
weeds get a start, for even if they don't increase in number, if 
they once smother the ground or the crop you will wish you had 
never heard of a garden. Second, do your hand weeding while 
the surface soil is soft, and the weeds come out easily. A hard- 
crusted soil will double and treble the amount of labor required. 
When garden tools are such savers of labor, it would seem 
needless to suggest that they should be carefully kept in repair 
and always bright, clean and sharp. But such advice is needed, 
to judge by most of the tools one sees. Always have a piece of 
cloth or old bag on hand where' the garden tools are kept, and 
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