GRADING AND LEVELLING. 15 



be regretted. In case a fire were to break out in a bog 

 from the burning of the bushes, or the turf, then it 

 would be ruined were there not a supply of water that 

 can be readily forced upon it. 



The grading should be as nicely done as if laying 

 down a lawn or pleasure ground to grass, the object 

 being to get an even coat of sand over the whole of the 

 surface of the peat or muck. If numerous holes and 

 hollows are left here and there over the surface, then 

 there would be places, in levelling up with sand, where 

 the coating would be six or seven inches thick, instead 

 of three or four inches, the desired thickness. The con- 

 sequence would be that the vines would make a very un- 



Fig. 3. GRADING HOE. 



even growth ; those which were set where the sand was 

 the deepest, would be a year or two longer in making a 

 growth through such a coating, than would those planted 

 where they could readily strike their roots down into the 

 rich muck beneath. 



A hoe, shaped like a common grubbing hoe, is the im- 

 plement used for grading. Every farmer knows what 

 that is ; but the grading hoe should be made of the best 

 steel, and ground to an edge like an axe the object 

 being to cut all the fine roots to pieces, and get out such 

 of them as escaped when the trees, stumps, shoots, and 

 larger wood were removed. These axes, or hoes, are made 

 by hand at Cape Cod, and can be procured of hardware 

 dealers at West Sandwich and Harwich. 



