Hoe (tool)

A farmer using a hoe to keep weeds down in a vegetable garden.

A hoe is an ancient and versatile agricultural and horticultural hand tool used to shape soil, remove weeds, clear soil, and harvest root crops. Shaping the soil includes piling soil around the base of plants (hilling), digging narrow furrows (drills) and shallow trenches for planting seeds or bulbs. Weeding with a hoe includes agitating the surface of the soil or cutting foliage from roots, and clearing soil of old roots and crop residues. Hoes for digging and moving soil are used to harvest root crops such as potatoes.

Types

There are many kinds of hoes of varied appearances and purposes. Some have multiple functions while others have singular and specific functionality.

Cultivating tool, a pull or draw hoe

There are two genera of hoe: draw hoes for shaping soil and scuffle hoes for weeding and aerating soil.

A draw hoe has a blade set at approximately a right angle to the shaft. The user chops into the ground and then pulls (draws) the blade towards them. Altering the angle of the handle can cause the hoe to dig deeper or more shallowly as the hoe is pulled. A draw hoe can easily be used to cultivate soil to a depth of several inches. A typical design of draw hoe, the "eye hoe", has a ring in the head through which the handle is fitted.[1] This design has been used since Roman times.

A scuffle hoe is used to scrape the surface of the soil, loosen the top inch or so, and to cut the roots of, remove, and disrupt the growth of weeds efficiently. These are primarily of two different designs: the Dutch hoe and the hoop hoe.

Eye hoe heads, some with sow-tooth (German: Sauzahn), Centro Etnográfico de Soutelo de Montes, Pontevedra, Spain
Cultivating tool, a push or thrust hoe

The term "hand hoe" most commonly refers to any type of light-weight, short-handled hoe, although it may be used simply to contrast hand-held tools against animal or machine pulled tools.

Draw hoes

Hoedad (tree-planting tool) Kaibab National Forest, Arizona, USA

Scuffle hoes

Other hoes

Hoes resembling neither draw nor scuffle hoes include:

Fork-hoe depiction in Der Rebmann (the vine-dresser). Jost Amman, Das Ständebuch, 1568

History

Hoes are an ancient technology, predating the plough and perhaps preceded only by the digging stick. In Sumerian mythology, the invention of the hoe was credited to Enlil, the chief of the council of gods.[28] The hand-plough (mr) was depicted in predynastic Egyptian art, and hoes are also mentioned in ancient documents like the Code of Hammurabi (ca. 18th century BC) and the Book of Isaiah (c. 8th century BC).

The human damage caused by long-term use of short-handled hoes, which required the user to bend over from the waist to reach the ground, and caused permanent, crippling lower back pain to farm workers, resulted, after struggle led by César Chávez with political help from Governor Jerry Brown in the California Supreme Court declaring the short-handled hoe to be an unsafe hand tool that was banned under California law in 1975.[29][30]

Archaeological use

Over the past fifteen or twenty years, hoes have become increasingly popular tools for professional archaeologists. While not as accurate as the traditional trowel, the hoe is an ideal tool for cleaning relatively large open areas of archaeological interest. It is faster to use than a trowel, and produces a much cleaner surface than an excavator bucket or shovel-scrape, and consequently on many open-area excavations the once-common line of kneeling archaeologists trowelling backwards has been replaced with a line of stooping archaeologists with hoes.

See also

Notes

  1. Deppe, Carol (5 Oct 2010). The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times. White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing. p. 101. ISBN 9781603583152. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  2. Eisen, Gustavus A. (1890). The Raisin Industry: A Practical Treatise on the Raisin Grapes, Their History, Culture and Curing. Sacramento, USA: H. S. Crocker. p. 131. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
  3. "How to Use a Grub Hoe". Easy Digging: Productive Tools for Garden and Farm. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
  4. "dago definition". Cambridge Dictionaries Online. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
  5. 1 2 Rockwell, Frederick F. (1911). "Wikisource link to Chapter V". Wikisource link to Home_Vegetable_Gardening. Wikisource.
  6. 1 2 Mrs. Loudon, Jane (1847). The Amateur Gardener's Calendar: a Monthly Guide, Etc. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans. p. 64. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
  7. Cutler, Karan (2002). Essential Tools: Equipment and Supplies for Home Gardeners. New York: Brooklyn Botanic Garden. p. 16. ISBN 9781889538501. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  8. Nix, Steve (May 28, 2008). "Hoedads: The Tool, The Cooperative". About.com.
  9. Hartzell, Hal Jr. (1987). Birth of a Cooperative: Hoedads, Inc. A Worker Owned Forest Labor Co-op. Eugene, OR: Hulogos'i Communications. p. 29. ISBN 0-938493-09-4.
  10. "California Ag Mechanics Tool ID Manual". CSU Chico College of Agriculture. California State University. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
  11. Loudon, John (1871). The Horticulturist, Gardening in America Series. Applewood Books. p. 84. ISBN 9781429013680. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
  12. Darling, David. "Hoe". Encyclopedia of Alternative Energy. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  13. "Annual Progress Report, September 1, 1984" (PDF). USAID. United States Agency for International Development. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
  14. Green, Victor (1 February 1954). "The Scuffle Hoe—A Valuable Tool for Small Plot Work on Non-Rocky Soils". Agronomy Journal. 46 (2): 94–95. doi:10.2134/agronj1954.00021962004600020011x. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  15. "Collinear Hoe Instructions" (PDF). Chelsea Green Publishing. 1995.
  16. Byczynski, Lynn (22 Feb 2008). The Flower Farmer: An Organic Grower's Guide to Raising and Selling Cut Flowers (2 ed.). Vermont, USA: Chelsea Green Publishing. p. 68. ISBN 160358076X. Retrieved 22 May 2015.
  17. "Swoe". V&A Images.
  18. Power Farming. Power Farming, Incorporated. 1919. p. 191. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  19. "US Patent 1017048, Cultivator, filed 1911". USPTO US Patent Database. United States Patent and Trademark Office. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  20. Tull, Jethro (1731). Horse Hoeing Husbandry (Third ed.). London: A Miller. p. 149. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  21. "Historic Figures: Jethro Tull (1674 - 1741)". BBC. The BBC. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
  22. Overton, Mark (1996). Agricultural Revolution in England: The Transformation of the Agrarian Economy 1500–1850. Cambridge University Press. pp. 121–122. ISBN 0-521-56859-5.
  23. "Clamming". Maine Clammers Association. Retrieved 18 October 2016.
  24. "Handtools for Trail Work - 2005 Edition".
  25. Periam, Jonathan (1887). The American Encyclopedia of Agriculture: A Treasury of Useful Information for the Farm and Household. New York: Continental Publishing Company. p. 327. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
  26. British Tractor and Farm Machinery Journal, Vol 11 iss 24, vol 12 iss 26, vol 13 iss 28. London: N. Kark Publications. 1964. p. 149. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
  27. "Model tractor, type 2D, equipped with toolbar and set of gang hoes". Collections Online. Science Museum Group. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  28. PBS. Heritage: Civilization and the Jews. "Nippur". Accessed 26 Nov 2012.
  29. "Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers' Struggle". Pbs.org. Retrieved December 13, 2012.
  30. Bruns, Roger (2005). Cesar Chavez: A Biography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. pp. 91–92. Retrieved 29 October 2015.

References

Further reading

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