TOOLS USED IN HORTICULTURE. 



87 



plate of iron, through the middle of which 

 ,re inserted, and fixed and adjusted by 



the 



screws. 



Fig. 27. 



M'IntoslCs wheel verge- cutter. 



has a broad bent 



cutting coulters a 



It is described and figured in * Gard. 



Mag.,' vol. xiv. p. 177. In cutting 



turfs from a piece of grass land, the 



line is first stretched in order that 



the cutting may be performed in a 



perfectly straight direction. This is 



also the case in cutting the verges of 



straight walks, but in cutting those of 



curved walks the eye alone serves as a 



guide. In gardens and pleasure-grounds 



of moderate extent the common verge-cutter is the most useful, and 



it is also the most generally used in large establishments. 



The trowel and the spud, the latter of which is also used as a spade- 

 cleaner, belong to this group of tools. Though the spud, j 28. 

 fig. 28, can hardly be considered as a fit tool for a profes- 

 sional gardener, yet with a suitable handle, it forms a most 

 convenient walking-stick for the amateur gardener ; because 

 by it he may root out a weed, or thin out a plant, wherever 

 he sees it necessary. The transplanting trowel, fig. 29, a, 

 is a very useful tool wherever careful and neat gardening 

 is practised ; because by two of these, one in each hand, 

 growing plants can be taken up with balls, put temporarily Garden-spud. 

 into pots, and carried from the reserve ground to the flower beds and 

 borders, where they can be turned out into the free soil, without 

 sustaining any injury. The trowel, ft, is used for taking up 

 plants and as a substitute for the hand to lift soil in potting 

 plants. The best of all trowels for planting bedding or any 

 other small plants, is not the concave garden trowel, but a 

 rather small and flat steel trowel. The best I have had are 

 those marked with a Crown and W. H. Much more work can 

 be done in a given time than with the concave garden trowel, 

 and with much greater pleasure and ease to the operator. A 

 trowel with a flat blade and a forked point is sometimes used 

 for raising up weeds from gravel or grass, and is called a 

 weeding-trowel. The weeding-hook, which is a narrow strap 

 of iron forked at the lower extremity, with a wooden handle at the 

 other, is also used for raising weeds. There is a variety of this, with 

 a fulcrum, for rooting daisies and other broad-leaved j^. 30. 



weeds out of lawns, fig. 30. The use of the fulcrum 

 is to admit of a long handle which renders it un- 

 necessary for the operator to stoop. Some of these 

 tools have short handles, to adapt them for infirm d/ 



persons and children. ^ 



Transplanters, figs. 31 and 32 (see also " Machines V*!/'* 

 used in Horticulture"). These tools are used as substitutes for 

 the transplanting trowel. In Saul's implement, fig. 31, the blades 

 are opened by pressure on the lever, a; and in the spade trans- 



Fig. 29. 



