The third plowing may be given with a shovel or cotton-plow, or with the cultivator, again running twice in the row. The hoes need not follow at this plowing, but may wait until the fourth plowing, done usually toward the middle or last of July, or about the time the vines are a foot in diameter, and are sending down their peduncles, or stems, on which the young pods are forming. The plants begin to blossom by the first of July or before, and continue to flower for more than a month. The pods begin to form very soon after the flower appears, and by the time of the last weeding great care must be taken not to cut the stems. For this reason the hoes cannot proceed as fast as at the last weeding, and if there is much grass growing up through the vines to be hand picked, this working is tedious and laborious enough, and tires to the utmost the patience and endurance of the laborer. In fact, this is the worst period in the cultivation of the peanut crop. The weather is hot, close, and enervating; the frequent stooping and picking makes it doubly laborious; and, on account of the size the vines have attained, the plow must necessarily leave a wider surface for the hoe to go over. All this makes greatly against the hoe hands. It is no wonder, then, that, with laborers, many of whom are disposed to shirk their duty, the last working is too often poorly and inefficiently done. With more reliable labor, such as is to be had in the Northern and border States, better success would be easily attainable. The third weeding is the last working with the hoe that the crop receives, and next to the last usually given it with the plow. The Virginia planter, as a rule, stops weeding by the first of August, or as soon as the vines have well met along the row, and have sent down a goodly number of young pods. If there is any subsequent removal of grass, it is done by picking it out by hand, in order not to interfere with the pod stems. But after the last weeding, say in a week or ten days, one more plowing is usually given, generally with the cultivator or shovel-plow, run once in the row. This throws the soil up under the extremities of the vines, leaving the row of plants on a nice flat bed and a water furrow in the middle of the balk.