TOOLS AND STOBINGhBOOMS. 55 



CHAPTER 



TOOLS AND STORING-BOOMS. 



THE chief tools required exclusively in the fruit garden 

 are good saws, well set ; one widely set, for cutting moist 

 green wood, and good keen pruning-knives. In all 

 things of this kind it is the most convenient, as well as 

 the best economy, to buy things of first-rate quality, 

 and to take good care of them. All steel articles should 

 have frequent and plentiful oiling with pure neat's-foot 

 oil. They should also be kept in a dry place, and never 

 left out in the wet or damp. 



Pruning-scissors are of all shapes and sizes, set at all 

 kinds of angles, but those for fruit trees are generally 

 set straight, on either long or short handles. 



A good pair of rose-scissors is necessary for cutting 

 twigs and all young shoots, and a pair of long-handled 

 cutting shears, capable of severing any branch up to the 

 size of a man's wrist, kept sharp and in good order; is 

 also necessary. All cutting and pruning for which one 

 or other of these is not adapted, may very well fall to 

 the lot of the pruning- knife or the saw. 



Spades, rakes, hoes, forks, picks, and all the other 

 tools belonging to the ordinary kitchen garden, may of 

 course come into use from time to time, among the fruit 

 trees, too, but use them there with caution. It is not 

 wise ever to dig among the roots of fruifc trees, or to 

 plant crops so near to them that they can, by possibility, 

 interfere with them. A little gentle, careful forking is 

 all in the shape of digging that should approach the 

 roots of trees, as the object in working the soil about 

 them is to encourage the roots to spread near the surface 

 of the ground, not on any account, to induce them to 

 strike downwards, nor to injure the tender rootlets. 



