Is it "a tough row to hoe?", or "a tough road to hold?"

Solution 1:

The original form of the phrase appears to be "a hard row to hoe". Now, "tough row to hoe" is found at least as far back as 1890:

She's got a tough row to hoe, Dilly Gage has. She used to try to keep folks from knowin' how cantankerous he was, but she couldn't.

while 1963 seems to be the earliest occurrence of "tough road to hold", and it is noted as an error:

Certain little errors may be the result of spelling, hearing, or carelessness - "a tough road to hold"

But we find "hard row to hoe" even earlier. It's found in Dickens' All the Year Round magazine in 1890, but the earliest use is no later than 1818:

He loves to contend with difficulties; and if he had not a hard row to hoe, would place himself in some sphere demanding effort, in order to extricate himself.

Since it's used without explanation in the 1818 book, it must have been regarded as a well-known expression even by then. So the origin is as a farming metaphor, and seems to be chiefly American in usage.

Solution 2:

The road and hold variants are eggcorns deriving from the orginal "Tough/hard row to hoe", an agricultural expression relating to hoeing one’s row (with an actual tool) while working in the field, that goes back to at least 1818.

Solution 3:

I live in the South where much cotton is raised. Cotton was "hoed" to get rid of the weeds growing in the rows with the cotton. Believe me, "hard row to hoe" is the correct term. Through error, it has become something else.