HODOMETER is an instrument for measuring the distance traveled over by any conveyance, and consists of an arrangement of toothed wheels, like clock-work, fixed on one side of a machine, and connected with the axle, from which motion is commu nicated to it. An index and dial show the exact distance the vehicle has traveled.
HOE, an implement of gardening and of agriculture used for stirring the soil, drawing up earth to plants, thinning plants in drills, clearing the ground of weeds, etc. There are many forms of this implement, all of which may be referred to two classes—draw hoes and the former having the blade almost at right angles to the handle; the latter almost in the same plane with it. The thrust-hoe, or :Dutch hoe, is chiefly used for killing weeds, and for stirring ground to a very slight depth. The draw-hoe, although much used as an implement of gardening, is scarcely used in Britain as an agricultural implement, except for the thinning (singling) of turnips, in which it is always employed. But in some countries it is very extensively used in place of the spade. In some parts of the West Indies almost all the tillage of the ground is done by the hoe. It is more adapted than the spade to the use of laborers whose feet are not provided with shoes.
floes intended for tilling the ground, instead of the plow and spade, are much larger and heavier than those used in British gardening, and are raised much higher, and brought down to the ground with greater force, somewhat like the pickaxe. Hoes for stirring very stiff soils arc sometimes made with prongs instead of a blade.
In the improved agriculture of the present day, implements called arc extensively used. They are intended for purposes corresponding with those of the thrust-hoe, and may be generally described as consisting of thrust-hoe blades, variously modified, and attached to a frame in order to be drawn by a horse. Various contriv ances are employed to accommodate the blades to inequalities of surface, etc. Horse hoes can only be employed for crops sown in drills: and the drills must be perfectly parallel, if more than one interval is to be cleaned and stirred at once. With the sowing machines now in use, however, this is secured. In turnip-husbandry, a horse-hoe with several blades is often used to clear away the weeds from one interval.