THE YOUNG FAKMEK'S MANUAL. 



249 



appear in the illustration. It would be a great improvement to 

 have an iron rack a straight piece of iron with teeth on one 

 side of it bolted to the standard, and an iron pawl playing in it ; 

 but for ordinary purposes, notches in a wooden standard and a 

 tough piece of wood for a pawl will subserve a very good purpose. 



FIG. 114. 



A PICK MATTOCK OR GRUBBING HOE 



" Let servant be ready with mattock in hand, 

 To grub out the bushes that cover the land." TUSSER. 



328. Is a very useful tool for setting stakes for a rail fence, 

 when the stakes are not driven in the ground in a perpendicular 

 position. The blade of a mattock should be not less than two 

 and a half inches wide, and the handle should be of an oval form 

 instead of round, so that a laborer can hold it more advanta 

 geously in the proper position when using it. When the handle 

 of a mattock is round, it may turn half way over in the hands 

 of a workman and he will not perceive it ; but when a handle is 

 of an oval form, the eye 

 also being oval, a workman 

 will perceive a slight varia 

 tion of the mattock with 

 out looking to see if he is 

 holding it correctly. (See 

 HAMMER AND BEETLE, Par. 

 331 and 338.) The handle 

 of a mattock should always 

 be put through the eye 

 from the lower side, and 

 then it will not draw or 

 work out, if the eye is 

 made as it should be a 

 little the largest on the 

 lower side. Eemember, 

 that a mattock or grubbing 

 hoe is not a crowbar for 

 prying stone, nor a mill- A PICK MATTOC K OB GRUBBING HOK. 



