IMPLEMENTS AND T00I5. 207 



well as the side-sLoots, having reached the top of the wall, 'the extremities 

 of the branches are pruned back every year to about 18 inches below the 

 coping-, in order to leave room for the development of the terminal bud, which 

 is necessary to draw the sap upwards for the nourishment of the fruit. Aftei 

 sixteen or eighteen years, a healthy tree, properly trained on this system, 

 presents a surface of upwards of 60 square feet of young fruit-bearing wood. 

 The symmetry of the tree is pleasant to look at, and it is said to be admirably 

 balanced for vegetation, and consequently for fruit-bearing. 



524. One objection to this mode of training is, that the buds do not always 

 occur at the right spot for projecting new side-shoots. When this is the case, the 

 process of shield-budding is had recourse to, in August. In other respects, 

 the same principle of pruning is adopted as in pyramid-trained trees, the only 

 modification being the removal of the spm-s thrown out between the tree and 

 the wall. Another objection to the system is the time which must elapse 

 before the- wall is covered ; but this is inseparable from any mode of growing 

 apples and pears on walls, and may be met by planting vines between each, 

 i-unning a central rod of the vine to the top of the wall ; stopping it there for 

 the first year, and carrying a shoot on each side under the coping, with 

 descending rods at intervals, calculated not to interfere with the side-shoots 

 of the pear-tree.— We may conveniently add here a section on 



Implements and Tools. 



525. The tools required in a garden may be divided into implements, instru- 

 ments, and tools ; the former comprising the pick, spade, fork, hoe, and rake, all 

 of which require the use of both arms, and some of them the whole muscular 

 force of the frame. They generally combine the principle of the lever and 

 the wedge, the blade of all of them being employed to separate particles of 

 matter by the application of lever power, which lies in the shaft or handle. 

 Where the handle is intended to be grasped and held firmly at one spot, as in 

 the spade, a handle is provided adapted for that end ; where the hand is to slide 

 along, the handle should be smooth and round : such is the form of the handles 

 of the rake, the hoe, the pick, and all similar tools ; ash being the best material 

 for handles requiring strength, willow being lighter and strong enough for 

 others, such as the rake, the Dutch hoe, and others required to be of some 

 length. 



526. The Pick is a compound lever, the blade of which ought to be of the 

 best wrought iron edged with steel, the handle of well-seasoned sound ash 

 timber. It is made in various shapes ; for garden use, one end is usually 

 made pointed, the other wedge-shaped, to adapt it for cutting through roots 

 when they are met with in the soil. That called the mattock, having the 

 edge axe-fashion, is used to chop up hard grassy surfaces, and to stub up 

 whins, heather, and other wild shrubs. 



527. The Spade is a broad blade of plate-iron, attached to a handle of tough 

 root-cut ash. Two-thirds of the blade ought to be of steel, and the other of 

 the best scrap-iron, well welded together. In some, the blade is perforated 



