Book III. 



IMPLEMENTS OF GARDENING. 



269 



Chap. I. 



Implements of Gardening. 



1294. The usual mechanical agents employed in garden-culture, may be classed as fol- 

 lows : — 1. Tools, or simple implements for performing operations on the soil., and other 

 dead or mineral matters; 2. Instruments for performing operations on plants, or on living 

 bodies, as insects and vermin ; 3. Utensils for habitations of plants, or the deportation 

 or retention of either dead or living materials ; 4. Machines, or compound implements 

 for any of the above or other purposes ; and, 5. Articles adapted, manufactured, or pre- 

 pared, so as to serve various useful purposes. 



Sect. I. Tools* 



1295. The common character of tools is, that they are adapted for labor which re- 

 quires more force than skill ; they are generally large, and require the use of both hands 

 and the muscular action of the whole frame, often aided by its gravity. Tools consist 

 of two parts, the head, blade or acting part ; and the handle or lever, by which the power 

 is communicated, and the tool put in action. As almost all tools operate by effecting a 

 mechanical separation between the parts of bodies, they generally act on the principle of 

 the wedge and lever, and consequently the wedge-shape ought to enter, more or less, 

 into the shape of the head or blade of most of them, and the lever or handle ought to be 

 of some length. Where the handle is intended to be grasped and held firm, its form 

 may be adapted for that end, as in the upper termination of the handle of the shovel or 

 the spade ; but where the human hand is to slide along the handle, then it should be 

 perfectly cylindrical, as producing least friction, as in the hoe and the mattock. The 

 materials of which tools are composed, are almost exclusively iron and timber ; and of 

 the latter the ash is reckoned to combine most strength and toughness, the willow to be 

 lightest, and fir or pine deal the straightest. The best quality of both materials should, 

 if possible, be used, as scrap-iron and cast-steel, and root-cut young ash from rocky steeps. 

 For light tools, such as the hoe and rake, the willow, or pine deal, may be used for the 

 handles, but in scarcely any case can inferior iron or steel be admitted for the blades. 



1296. The pick (Jig. 77.) is a double or compound lever, and consists of the handle (a), 

 which ought to be formed of sound ash timber, and the head (b), which ought to be 

 made of the best iron, and pointed with steel. There are several varieties : the first, the 

 pick with the ends of the head pointed {Jig. 77.), is used for loosening hard ground, 

 gravel, &e. ; the second, or pick-axe (Jig. 78.) with both ends wedge-shaped, in reversed 

 positions, and sharp, is used for cutting through the roots in felling timber ; the third, 

 or mattock (Jig. 79.), is used chiefly for loosening hard surfaces and for grubbing up 

 roots of small trees or bushes. It is sometimes called a crow, and also a grubbing-axe, 

 iioe-axe, &c. 



1297. Garden-levers are of two species, the removing and the carrying lever. 



1 298. T/ie removing-lever (Jig. SO. ) is a straight and generally cylindrical or polygonal 

 bar of iron, somewliat tapered and wedge-shaped or flattened in the thick end ; it is used 

 for the removal of large stones or other heavy bodies, in which its advantage is as the 

 distance of the power (a), from the fulcrum (6), &c. 



1299. The carrying-lever, or hand-spoke, is used in pairs for carrying tubs of plants or other 

 bodies or materials furnished with hooks or bearing staples, under or in which to insert the 

 hand-spokes. Two of them united to a platform of boards form the common hand-barrow. 



< ; 1 82 83 85 86 84 89 



1300. The spade (Jig. 81.) consists of two parts ; the blade, of plate-iron, and the handle, 



