Connecticut western news., 1909-10-14
CALL OF THE HOE
 BY 1. H, BAILEY
DEAN OF CORNELL AGRI. COLLEGE

Says That to Stir the Soil IS to Let
 in the Air and Thus Give it Fer
 tiIitY.
 doubt whether a person can find in any literature good history of the hoe; and vet the hoe is the implement with which man has possessed the earth. It was with some kind of hand tool that he first broke the earth and then planted the seeds that they might grow.
 If we were to make history of the hoe, we should show the way by which man has come to his present stats; for it is more than likely that many of tis implements have evolved out of the crude tools with which, in his primitive state, he struck the earth. The re- mainder of the early implements have probably arisen from those with which he struck other animals and protected himself in combat. The implements of combat tend always to pass away as men ascend. but the implements of tillage tend always to increase.
 The hoe is undoubtedly the primitive form of the blow; for blow is essenti- ally a hoe drawn by a man or a domes- ticated animal. The furrow turning blow is a very late development. In fact. the usual blow of many peoples today is only a crude improvement of the crotched stick. lifting and breaking the earth but not inYerting it.
 It may astonish the intending coun- tryman to be told that if he wants a good garden or crop he must water it with a rake or harrow before he waters it with hose; and yet this is just what he must do if he would be a worthy member of the craft that makes the earth to blossom.
 In dry weather the soil moisture tends always to rise and to pass from the sur fac2 by evaporation. Anything that checks the surface vaporation, of course, keeps the water in the soil. A beard or | blanket or a mulch of sawdust on the surface prevents or checks evaporation. The earth is moist beneath the covering. Similarly, layer of dry loose earth acts ts a mulch; and in this case we may make the mulch on the spot rather than spply it as a foreign material. The mulch is made by any surface-working sool that leaves the soil loose and more or less fine.
 \ "crust" of earth usually acts just the reverse of mulch, for it continues rle capillary connection of the under soil with atmosphere. It IS, therefore, ne ,essary to break up or destroy the crust as we'll as to make the mulch; So that the hoe may very properly precede the rake; or, in field practice, the cutting ''c2ltivating" tools may precede the straight tooth harrow.
 It is more important to keep the water in the soil than to add or apply water to it. After a man has learned how to keep and utilize all the water that the rains provide him, he may then ld more if his plants neod it; and it is exactly the land that is best titled and handled that profits most by the apphca- ton both of water and of fertilizer.
 The "dry-farming in the West, now so much in the public discussion, is a process of storing and keeping the raiu- fall (by deep preparation of the land and maintenance of the earth-mulch) until there is sufficient supply in the soll to make crop. Vast areas of semi-arid lands that can never be irrigated-be- cause of lack of water and of the physi- cal contiguration-can be made to yield good produce by means of saving and utilizing the natural rainfall.
 The stirring of the soil lets in the air, improves the physical structure, keeps the water. makes it possible for certain bacteria to multiply, and in other ways aids the soil to produce a crop. The tilling of the soil Is properly, therefore, continuing process for a good part of the season; and it's weed killing function is only secondary or incidental.
 One comes Into the closest contact with the soil and the plant when he ap- plies the tools of tillage. It is inexpli- cable what constitutes work and what pleasure. The handling of an agricul- tural implement is universally reg arde d as the most menial of labor, and yet the more labcrious and essentially less in spring handling of ball clubs and golf implements is assembled with the pleas ures. Tine modern tillage tools, particu- larly the horse tools made in America, have come to be so comedy and so nicely effective that the handling of them ought not to b. wholly devoid of pleas urr.
 It is a good art to handle a hoe well. N.rv fpW persons can do if. Most pcr-