FORK. 



185 



FORK. 



for flowers with an ordinary border-fork. 

 It is handled in much the same manner as 

 the spade, the only difference being that 

 the handle is inserted into a socket pro- 

 ceeding upwards from the centre of the 

 head of the fork, and does not enter the 

 top of the blade as in 

 the spade. For gar- 

 dening purposes, forks 

 are. made with three, 

 four, and five prongs ; 

 but for digging and 

 trenching, a fork with 

 four prongs is the most 

 suitable. The lower 

 part of each prong 

 should be of steel, and 

 the upper part and the 

 tread and socket of the 

 best scrap iron, and the 

 prongs of all forks used 

 for digging and trench- 

 ing should be slightly 

 curved. Fig. I shows 

 the ordinary digging 

 fork, and this may be 

 taken as the general 

 type of tools of this 

 class, the prongs being 

 about 9 or 10 inches 

 in length. This fork 

 will serve for all ordi- 

 nary purposes, but for 

 trenching and breaking 

 FIG. i. ORDINARY up ground at some little 



DIGGING FORK. 



prongs, square above and pointed at the 



extremity, similar in structure to the ordi- 

 nary digging fork, but 



much smaller, the 



prongs being about 6 



or 7 inches in length. 



The smaller fork is 



most useful for border 



work in stirring the 



surface soil to the 



depth of two or three 



inches, an operation 



which is known as 



"pointing." When 



borders receive a top 



dressing of well-rotted 



manure in the late 



autumn or early win- 

 ter, it should be 



mingled with the surface soil by pointing 



with this fork. Being light and small, 



and having the prongs tolerably close 



together, it is possible to finish the sur- 

 1 face of a border as neatly with this fork 



as with a rake, any large stones, pebbles, 

 I &c., that are brought to the surface being 



picked off with the hand. The potato fork, 



FIG. 2. DEMERARA 

 TRENCHING FORK. 



face, a fork with stronger and broader 

 prongs should be used, such as the 

 Demerara trenching fork, which is illus- 

 trated in Fig. 2. In order to impart as 

 much strength as possible to this imple- 

 ment, the front strap is carried almost up 

 the top of the handle, to which it is secured 

 by several rivets. The ends of the prongs 

 are square and broad. In Fig. 3 the border 

 or lady's fork is shown, a tool with slight 



FIG. 3. BORDER 



OR LADY'S FORK. 



FIG. 4. FLAT PRONG 

 POTATO FORK. 



which is used for digging uotatoes, is some- 



