73 IMPLEMENTS OF HORTICULTURE. 



ef the parts. When the section of amputation is large, it is best to 

 cover the wound with some adhesive composition, which will exclude 

 the weather, and not impede the growth of the bark over the wound ; 

 but this subject will be noticed more in detail when we come to treat of 

 pruning. Some plants likewise require strong stakes to prevent their 

 branches or stems from being broken, or their roots from being blown 

 out of the ground by the wind. 



A number of other plant diseases have been described and named 

 by writers on Botany, but they are of very little interest to the prac- 

 tical gardener, because they rarely occur when plants are properly 

 treated, or occur only in old age, or in a state of natural decay ; or 

 because, when they do occur, they seldom admit of any remedy. 

 Those diseases to which some plants are more liable than others, will 

 be mentioned when these plants are treated of; for example, the rot in 

 the Hyacinth, the dropsy in Succulents, the blistering of the leaves in 

 the Peach, the shanking of Grapes, fungi on the roots, etc., etc. 



CHAPTEE VI. 

 IMPLEMENTS OF HORTICULTURE. 



WITH the progress of gardening a great many tools, instruments, 

 utensils, machines, and other articles, have been invented and recom- 

 mended : and some of these are without doubt considerable improve- 

 ments on those previously in use ; while, on the other hand, many 

 would be rather impediments than otherwise in the hands of an 

 expert workman. The truth is, that for all gardening in the open air, 

 and without the use of pots for growing plants, or walls or espaliers 

 for training trees, the only essential instrument is the spade. There 

 is no mode of stirring the soil, whether by picks, forks, or hoes, which 

 may not be performed with this implement. It may be used as a sub- 

 stitute for the dibber, or trowel, or perforator (in planting or inserting 

 stakes) ; instead of the rake and the roller in smoothing a surface 

 and rendering it fit for the reception of the smallest seeds ; and after 

 these are sown, the spade may be employed to sprinkle fine earth over 

 them as a covering, in which way indeed that operation may be per- 

 formed more perfectly than by " raking in." The only garden operation 

 on the soil which cannot be performed with the spade, is that of freeing 

 a dug surface from stones, roots, and other smaller obstructions, which 

 are commonly " raked off;" but as the removal of small stones from 

 the soil is of very doubtful utility, and as at all events these and 

 other obstructions can be hand-picked, the rake cannot be considered 

 an essential garden implement. The pruning-knife might in general 

 be dispensed with in the training of young trees, by disbudding with 

 the finger and thumb; but as the branches of grown-up trees 

 frequently die or become diseased, and require cutting off, the 

 pruning-knife may be considered the most essential implement next 



