28 GENERAL ADVICE 



fifteen minutes one has to enjoy in the flower, 

 fruit and vegetable garden and that would suffice 

 for the needful weeding with the hoes we are 

 celebrating would be lost in harnessing horses 

 or adjusting and oiling squeaky wheel -hoes, even 

 if everybody had them. The 'Garden' is not big 

 enough, nor my patience long enough, to give 

 more than an inkling of the unspeakable merits 

 of these weapons of society and civilization. 

 When Mrs. Tarryer was showing twelve or fif- 

 teen acres of garden with never a weed to be 

 seen, she valued her dozen or more of these light 

 implements at five or ten dollars daily; whether 

 they were in actual use or adorning the front 

 hall, like a hunter's or angler's furniture, made 

 no difference. But where are these millennial 

 tools made and sold? Nowhere. They are as 

 unknown as the Bible was in the dark ages, 

 and we must give a few hints towards manu- 

 facturing them. 



"First, about the handles. The ordinary dealer 

 or workman may say these knobs can be formed 

 on any handles by winding them with leather; 

 but just fancy a young maiden setting up her hoe 

 meditatively and resting her hands and chin upon 

 an old leather knob to reflect upon something that 

 has been said to her in the garden, and we shall 

 perceive that a knob by some other name would 

 smell far sweeter. Moreover, trees grow large 

 enough at the butt to furnish all the knobs we 



