CHAPTER IX. 



GARDEN IMPLEMENTS 



AND HOW TO USE THEM. 

 " Only the best is good enough." 



T is not many years since the spade was considered the 

 first requisite in the garden. Now we know that a 

 good two-horse plow does the work of turning the 

 soil not only much faster, and with less labor to man 

 than spade or spading fork, but much better at the 

 same time. Good plows are now on sale at every 

 hardware store, and used by all intelligent farmers. 

 In fact there are more good plows than good plowers ; 

 for simple as the operation seems to be, but few people know 

 how to do it to best advantage. Straight lines and even furrows 

 require much less work than crooked lines and irregular furrows. 

 There is a knack about this natural to some people, but not 

 easily acquired by the average " hired man," and the gardener, ii 

 he desires to have the work done well, must do it himself or 



Sample of Faulty Plowing. 



instruct his men how to do it. Suppose we have a strip of land 

 to plow of shape as here shown, and situated between strips of 

 standing crops. Even a poor plowman will find little difficulty 

 of striking out the furrow in centre, and to go on all right for 

 awhile ; but as the plowing progresses, and the team naturally 



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