Definition - something that is difficult to do or deal with
The row in this expression is a line of planted crops, and the word hoe means “to work with a tool with a thin flat blade on a long handle to cultivate, weed, or loosen the earth around plants.” This expression is often found today written (or said) as a hard road to hoe, a variant considered incorrect by most usage guides. Incorrect it may well be (we typically do not use a hoe on a road), but it has been in use for almost 200 years; a print, released in 1840 as a satire about Martin Van Buren’s re-election campaign prominently featured the text “A Hard Road to Hoe! Or, the White House Turnpike, macadamized by the North Benders.” Ya burnt, Van Buren.