88 



TOOLS USED IN HORTICULTURE. 



Fig. 31. 



SauFs 



planter, fig. 32, the blades are pressed together 

 by moving the sliding-piece, b, downwards ; 

 and when the plant is carried to its place of 

 destination, they are opened by moving it 

 upwards. Both these transplanters are more 

 adapted for amateurs than for professional 

 gardeners, and the manner in which they 

 are to be used is sufficiently obvious from the 

 figures. Transplanters of this kind are gene- 

 rally supposed to be of French origin, but we 

 are informed that the instrument of which fig. 

 31 is an improvement was an invention of 

 the Rev. Mr. Thornhill, vicar of Staindrop, in 

 the county of Durham, about 1820, who used 

 it extensively on his farm for transplanting 

 turnips. 



The forks used in gardening are of two kinds; 

 broad-pronged forks, for stirring the soil 



Fig. 32. 



transplanter amon g growing plants, and as a substitute for Transplanting 



the spade in all cases where that implement spade. 

 would be liable to cut or injure roots; and round-pronged forks, 

 fig. 33, for working with littery dung, a, or for turning over tan, 



Fig. 33. 



b. There are hand-forks of both kinds 

 for working in glass frames, hotbeds, or 

 pits. The digging-fork is almost as es- 

 sential to every garden as the spade ; and, 

 wherever there are hotbeds, dung linings, 

 or tan, the dung-fork with three prongs, 

 fig. 33, a, and the tan-fork with five 

 prongs, 6, cannot be dispensed with. 

 The three-pronged digging-fork is used 

 for shallow digging, or pointing fruit-tree 

 borders, and also for taking up potatoes. 

 Parks' s steel digging and manure forks 

 are a great improvement on the old 

 kinds, and one of the best aids to culture. After using 

 them nobody would think of using the old forks. The 

 American four-tined digging-fork, fig. 34, is perhaps 

 the best known, and far superior to the kinds here figured. 



Eakes, figs. 35 and 36, are used for freeing the surface soil from 

 stones and other obstacles, for raking off weeds, or mown grass, or 

 fallen leaves, and for covering in seeds. The common garden rakes, 

 used for raking soil and gravel, differ chiefly in size. See fig. 36. The 

 daisy-rake, fig. 35, a, has broad teeth, lancet-pointed, sharp at the 

 edges, and set close together ; and it is used for tearing off the heads 

 or flowers of daisies, plantains, dandelions, and other broad-leaved 

 plants, which appear in grass lawns, in the early part of the season ; 

 and thus it renders the necessity of mowing less frequent. The short 

 grass-rake, fig. 35, b, is formed of a thin piece of sheet-iron, cut along 



Dung and tan 

 forks- 



