274 



SCIENCE OF GARDENING. 



Part II. 



to eight feet in length, and operating by means of a lever moved by a cord and pulley. 

 Its use is to enable a person standing on the ground to prune standard trees, -which it 

 readily does when the handle is eight feet long, to the height of fifteen feet ; and, by usino- 

 step-ladders, any greater height may be attained. Branches one inch and a half in 

 diameter may readily be cut oft' with this instrument. There is a species made entirely 

 of metal, to be used with one hand for pruning shrubs or hedges : of this species there 

 are varieties made at Sheffield of different sizes and qualities. 



1333. The shears used in gardening are of several species. 



1334. T?ie pruning-shcars (fig. 122.) differ from the common sort, in having a moveable centre (a) for 

 the motion of one of the blades, by which means, instead of a crushing-cut, they make a draw-cut, leaving 

 the section of the part attached to the tree as firm and smooth as if cut off with a knife. It is used in the 

 same way as the common shears, and is very convenient in reducing the size of the shrubs or bushes, and 

 clipping hedges of roses or other select plants. 



1335. The ringing-shears (fig. 123.) is an instrument of French invention for expediting the practice of 

 ringing trees. A two-bladed knife, with both blades open at once, will give the best idea of its mode of 

 operating, and is, in fact, a good substitute. 



123 124 



1336. The French pruning-shears (fig. 124.), by the curvature of the cutting blade, cuts in a sort of 

 medium way between the common crushing and pruning shears : it is an expeditious implement for 

 pruning the vine. 



1337. Hedge-shears (figs. 125 & 126.) are composed of two blades, acting in unison by means of a pivot, 

 on which they turn, on trie principle of a lever of the second kind. They were formerly much used in 

 gardening, for hedges, fanciful figures, bowers, and even fruit-shrubs, which were then shorn or trimmed, 

 into globes, cones, and pyramids, by shears. At present the taste is different. Shears, however, are still 

 wanted for hedges of privet and yew ; but where the twigs or shoots are stronger, as in the holly, thom, 

 and beech, the hedge-bill or pruning-shears is preferable, as producing wounds more easily cicatrised, and 

 not thickening the outer surface of the hedge, by which means the interior shoots rot for want of air, 

 especially in thom and other deciduous hedges 



125 126 



13S8. Verge-shears (fig. 127.) are a species in which the blades are joined to the handles by kneed shanks, 

 to lessen stooping in the operator. They are chiefly used for trimming the sides of box-edgings and grass- 

 verges. A variety has a small wheel appended, which in cutting grass-edgings is a great improvement. 



1339. Turf-shears (fig. 128.) are another variety, for cutting the tops of box-edgings and the tufts of 

 grass at the roots of shrubs, not easily got at by the scythe. Some of three have also a wheel or even two 

 wheels on an axle fixed to the shears on the principle of the table-caster. 



