86 AROUND THE YEAR IN THE GARDEN 



chain to this to drag. A regular marker may be made 

 easily with a six-foot strip of two-by-two-inch pine and a 

 half dozen twelve-inch spikes. Find the center of the strip 

 and make marks six inches from the center on each side; 

 then make marks every twelve inches each way to the end. 

 Bore six holes slightly smaller than the spikes and drive 

 these into place. Fasten a handle to the strip. 



Keep the Tools Bright and Sharp 



Probably nothing will so cut down the gardener's work, 

 take it the season through, as bright, sharp tools. After 

 using them wipe them off with a few old pieces of burlap and 

 then go over them with a cloth well soaked with oil. Have 

 a good flat file, costing fifteen or twenty 

 cents, with which to "touch up" your 

 hoes, wheel-hoe attachments, and so 

 forth, as they become dulled through 

 use. If the heads of any of your tools 

 become loose half a day's soaking in a pail 

 of water will usually tighten them up. 

 If the garden is not handy to the tool 



v 



shed much time may be saved by getting 



a substantial dry-goods box of conven- 

 ient size, fitting it up with a pair of cheap hinges and a 

 couple of shelves, and giving it a coat of paint; it will make 

 a miniature tool house to be kept at the head of the garden. 



A simple but practical garden reel may be made as fol- 

 lows: Take a piece of inch or inch-and-a-half hardwood four 

 inches wide and eighteen to twenty-four inches long. Make 

 a tapering point on one end, and in the middle of the other 

 end bore a hole large enough to take a half-inch bolt. Make 

 a simple spool out of two pieces of half -inch stuff, and a core 

 of two-inch stuff, round or square. Through the latter bore 

 a hole in which the half -inch bolt can turn easily as the axis. 

 You will always know where to find your line. 



Plant supports, to be used for tomatoes and such plants 

 in the flower garden as may need low supports, may be made 



