160 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 



the stratum will break very true where the groove has been 

 cut. 



TOOLS FOB HANDLING STONE. 



206. In addition to a good crowbar or two, and hand-spikes, 

 a good canthook, represented by Fig. 71, is a very useful and 

 convenient implement for handling bowlders 

 which two or three men could not handle 

 with crowbars without much difficulty. But 

 with a good canthook one man can roll along 

 a bowlder of six or eight hundred pounds 

 . with ease, and by using a couple of plank he 

 8 will be able to load such a stone on a sleigh 

 dj I or stone-boat in a very few minutes. 



207. The handle of the canthook is al 

 most always made too large and clumsy. It 

 should be about six feet in length, and of a 

 uniform taper from the mortise where the 

 hook enters it to the end, which end need 

 not be larger than the end of a fork handle. 

 The other end may be tapered off, as shown in the cut. At the 

 mortise it should be about two by three inches square, or even 

 smaller if the timber be of the best quality, otherwise it must be 

 larger. The hook should be made of the best iron, about an inch 

 and a half wide and three eighths of an inch thick, with half-inch 

 holes every two inches, and from twenty to thirty inches long, 

 according to the size of stone or logs to be rolled with it. At 

 the hook end it must be made much heavier and stronger than 

 the other part of it. The curvature of the hook is a very im 

 portant feature of it. If it is curved but little it will hook on a large 

 stone or log very readily, and will not hook on a small one. But 

 if the curvature of it will admit of its hooking to a small stone, it 

 will usually hook on a larger one, except it is very large. The 

 bolt which holds the hook should work easily in and out, and be 

 fastened with a leather key. 



208. The grapple hook, Fig. 72, is used for hooking on to 

 large stone with a team, in rolling them over and over, or in lift- 



