TOOLS USED IN HORTICULTURE. 81 



a rail or narrow board fixed to the wall in a horizontal direction, an 

 inch or two apart from it at the lower edge, and somewhat farther 

 apart at the upper edge. Other small articles maybe laid on shelves, 

 and priming-knives kept in drawers. No implement ought to be 

 placed in the tool-house without being previously thoroughly cleaned ; 

 and all sharp-edged implements, such as the mowing-machine, scythe, 

 hedgebill, &o., when laid by and not to be used for some time, should 

 have the blades or knives coated over with grease or bees-wax, and 

 powdered over with lime or chalk to prevent the grease being eaten off 

 by mice, as well as by combining with it to render it more tenacious, 

 of a firmer consistence, and less easily rubbed off". In coating the 

 blades of a mowing-machine, scythe, or hedgebill, or the plate of a 

 saw, with wax or grease, it should be first gently heated by holding it 

 before a fire ; and afterwards the wax or grease should be rubbed 

 equally over every part of it, and the powdered chalk or lime dusted 

 on before the grease cools. When the instruments are again to be 

 brought into use, the blades should be held before the fire, and after- 

 wards wiped clean with a dry cloth. The same operation of greasing 

 should also be applied to watering-pots laid by for the winter, when 

 these have not been kept thoroughly painted. Every implement ought 

 to have its proper place in the tool-house, to which it should be 

 returned every day when work is left off. In well-ordered establish- 

 ments fines are agreed on between the master and his men, to be im- 

 posed on all who do not return the tools to their proper places in due 

 time, and properly cleaned. 



Tools used in Horticulture. 



By tools are to be understood implements for performing the com- 

 moner manual operations of horticulture, and they may be included 

 under levers, picks, hoes, spades, forks, rakes, and a few others of less 

 consequence. 



The common lever, fig. 12, is a straight bar of wood shod with iron, 

 or of iron only, and is used for the removal of stones or large roots, 

 which rest on, or are embedded in the soil. The advantage gained is 

 as the distance from the power applied at a, -p. 



to the fulcrum b ; and the force of the 

 power is greatest when it is applied at 

 right angles to the direction of the lever. 

 The handspoke, or carrying lever, belongs 

 to this species of tool, and is simply a pole, 



tapering from the two extremities to the middle, by means of one or 

 two of which, tubs or boxes, or other objects, furnished with bearing 

 hooks, can be removed from one place to another. Two of these poles, 

 joined in the middle by cross-bars or boards, form what is called the 

 hand-barrow a carrying implement generally useful in gardening. 

 Sometimes, to lender a detached fulcrum unnecessary, the operating 

 end of the lever is bent up, so that the elbow or angle, fig. 13, c, 

 serves as a fulcrum. When the operating end terminates in claws, 



G 



