Garden Furnishings 391 



could be thrown in "great droppes" like a fountain. 

 The author says of ordinary means of garden water- 

 ing : 



"The common Watring Pot with us hath a narrow 

 Neck, a Big Belly, Somewhat large Bottome, and full of 

 little holes with a proper hole forced in the head to take in 

 the water; which filled full and the Thumbe laid on the 

 hole to keep in the aire may in such wise be carried in 

 handsome Manner." 



Garden tools have changed but little since Tudor 

 days ; spade and rake were like ours to-day, so 

 were dibble and mattock. Even grafting and prun- 

 ing tools, shown in books of husbandry, were sur- 

 prisingly like our own. Scythes were much heavier 

 and clumsier. An old fellow is here shown sharpen- 

 ing in the ancient manner a scythe about three 

 hundred years old. 



The art of grafting, known since early days, 

 formed an important part of the gardener's craft. 

 Large share of ancient garden treatises is devoted to 

 minute instructions therein. To this day in New 

 England towns a good grafter is a local autocrat. 



Beehives were once found in every garden ; bee- 

 skepes they were called when made of straw. Pic- 

 turesque and homely were the old straw beehives, and 

 still are they used in England ; the old one shown 

 in the chapter on sun-dials can scarcely be mated in 

 America. They served as a conventional emblem 

 of industry. They were made of welts or ropes of 

 twisted straw, as were the heavy winnowing skepes 

 once used for winnowing grain. In Maine, in a few 



