250 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 



pick for dressing stone. Neither the handle nor blade is calculated 

 for prying. Mattocks and picks of all forms may be seen in the 

 illustrated catalogue of R. L. Allen & Co., New York city. 

 For digging up trees, and for setting fence stakes among roots, 

 one edge of the mattock should be in the form of an axe, for the 

 purpose of cutting roots and sprouts. For ditching, or for pick 

 ing up very hard dirt, a pick with a pointed end, instead of an 

 edge like a mattock, is much the best, as in the figure. 



SPOOL FOB CHALK LINE AND FENCE LINE. 

 " The twisted lines curl into kinks and loops." HOMER. 



329. The majority of farmers, if they have any chalk line at 

 all and the same is true of many good mechanics wind it up 

 on a corn cob or a stick of wood, notwithstanding the very great 

 inconvenience in letting a line off, and the injury it receives by 

 being wound up and let off over the end of whatever it is wound 

 up on. Many mechanics have a little pocket spool to wind the 

 line on, and let it off by holding it, as it revolves, with a thumb 

 at one end and a finger at the other. It is a fact which but very 

 few people understand, that in winding up a line or cord, or rope 

 of any kind, by putting it over the end of the stick or spool, if it 

 is wound up the same way it was twisted when it was made, it 

 will be twisted harder and harder every time it is wound up, and 

 will soon curl up, running into all sorts of kinks and loops, while, 

 on the contrary, if it be wound up in an opposite direction, it will 

 soon be all untwisted and nearly worthless. I have seen many 

 good lines completely spoiled in this manner, by being always 

 wound up one way, and then let off by allowing the spool to 

 revolve. "When a line is wound up over the end of a stick, and 

 let off over the end it does not injure it, providing it is wound 

 up the way that will twist it harder as it is wound up. If it is 

 twisted harder by winding up, and untwisted by letting it off 

 just as much as it was twisted, the line will remain in the same 

 condition if wound up few or many times ; but when it is wound 

 up in the contrary direction, which will untwist it, as it is wound 



