The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1893-10-03
THE HOE ON rHE EARM.

Vigorous Protest Against this I'm.
PIGMENT OF Slavery and o Plea for
Rowland Black in the Yorkyille Enquirer.
The hand-hoe, in our field crops, is a
most primitive tool, and requires more
labor for It's use in proportion to the
work done, than any tool on the farm.
1t Is a relic of the days "before the
war;" when on every plantation it was
necessary to have something for every
slave, of whatever sex or age, to do.
This one tool any Of them had sense
enough to use, and the drudgery of the
work was not taken into account. Now
that this system has been abolished
for a quarter of a century, and q large
proportion of this slavish work is done
by the children of our white farmers,
we should have intelligence and pro-
gress enough to at least minimize the
use OF this tool, and substitute for it
hoeing by horsepower whenever it can
be done.
The hoo has driven more boys from
the farm and made Counter jumpersp
out OF more promising Young men than
any other n cause. In many cases 1t
is an implement of torture. An i'm
mature, undeveloped boy was expected
to swing his hoe from morning until
night, day after day, and month after
month, until he was tired, exhausted
and disguised, and when he dragged
his weary limbs to the house at night
he would say to HIMSELF If to no one
else, there is an easier way than this
to make my living, and when am q
man, l am going to findit. These early
impressions are lasting and in after
years, when the memory runs back to
the farm, the picture of mat old batter
ed hoe and the backaches it had infict-
ed upon him, would rise up before him
and make him shiver.
The hoe is one of those tools that q
farmer hardly v Q thinks of sharpen
ing, perhaps because he thinks any
kind of a tool will do a boy to work
with, or that a daily filing will wear
out the hoe too fast If anybody
thinks l am saying too much for the
boys on the farm. he must remember |
am a boy myself, and 1 have a fellow
feeling.
The hoe is the cause OF more bent
spines and stoop shoulders among our
farmers, than any Other one thing. A
dull hoe is the meanest tool in the
world, and if all the hoes used in this
part of the country, and a few of the
crooked spines they have made, were
put on exhibition, it would go far to
show why our boys are leaving the
farms and going to town to find an
easier life. .
1 feel sure l am within the bounds OF
reason, when I say that two-thirds of
this hand-hoeing is entirely unneces-
sary in the cultivation of our field
crops. Cultivators, with horseshoe at
tachment, arranged SO as to hoe away
as we'll as to the growing plants, are
10 nv several manufactures. the
best OF which, that I ave seen, Is the
"Planet, Jr.," horseshoe and cultivator
combined. This tool is not costly, and
does away with at least two-thirds of
the hand-hoeing. j..
Let us be up and doing, keep pace
with the progress which we observe
in other pursuits in the use of labor
saving c~ontrivances, and our boys will
have more time to read aid go to
school, and the memory of that dull
and batted hoe will not haunt them in
after life, and they will not, with
stopped shoulders and bent backs, look
like old men before they are fully
grown.
Boys, make your fathers read this,
and then remind him of these facts
every now and then between this and
next planting time.