241 



heating about two inches of the edge. (See TEMPERING TOOLS, 

 532.) 



SHOVELS. 



" give me a shovel ! There's magic about it I 

 And the laborer skilled will teach us to use it." EDWARDS. 



323. The great excellency and efficiency of shovels, and the 

 ease with which they may be handled, depend almost entirely on 

 the correct hang of the handles and blades. If a shovel or spade 

 be made of the very best materials, and is defective in the hang 

 of the blade and handle, it is a poor tool; and the intelligent 

 farmer would find it for his interest to dispose of such tools to 

 those who seen* to contend that a laborer can perform just as 

 much work with a tool having a straight handle as with a tool 

 correctly hung, providing he is only accustomed to using such tools. 

 Shovelling dirt, or manure, or anything else, is very laborious 

 work, even when the very best kind of shovels is used; but 

 when shovelling is to be performed with a poor tool, the laborer is 

 sure to be greatly fatigued, while he performs but a light day's 

 work ; but when a shovel is made of good materials, is light and 

 bright, and correctly hung, a man will be able to perform twice 

 the amount of labor, with half the fatigue that he would experi 

 ence with a shovel improperly hung. Shovels are too frequently 

 made unnecessarily heavy in order to be of consistent strength, 

 because the materials of which they are made are very poor ; but 

 if they were made of good steel they might be often full one-third 

 lighter, and sufficiently strong for any skillful laborer to use with 

 out fear of breaking. When the blades are made of poor iron, it 

 is necessary to make them nearly twice as heavy as if they were 

 made of steel ; and more than this, iron blades will not wear as 

 smooth, and will not enter the dirt as easily, as a steel blade ; and 

 dirt is far more apt to adhere to an iron blade than to a steel one, 

 all of which require the exercise of more force in using a shovel. 

 It is no uncommon thing to find shovels from one to two pounds 

 heavier than is necessary. Suppose, for example, a laborer will 

 throw up ten shovelfuls in a minute ; at that rate he will throw 

 up six thousand shovelfuls in a day of ten hours. If his shovel 



