TOOLS. 



500 



TOOLS. 



upper end of the handle by the man who 

 is using it. The blade, or head, should 

 be made of the best wrought iron, tipped 

 jr pointed with steel. Both ends are 

 alike in this tool, and both are pointed, 

 as shown at A in the accompanying 

 illustration. The handle should be made 

 of sound, well-seasoned ash. The head 

 is slipped over the upper end of the 

 handle, and forced into its place at the 

 other end, by letting the end fall in a 

 succession of blows on a block of wood, 

 or stone, or even hard and solid ground. 

 It is released by going through the same 

 process with the other end of the handle. 

 The handle should be from 2 feet 8 inches 

 to 3 feet in length, according to the height 

 of the person who will mostly 

 use it. A form of pick 

 better adapted for garden 

 use is shown at B, one end 

 being pointed as in the 

 ordinary pick, and the other 

 broad and in the form of a 

 wedge-shaped blade. This 

 end is used for cutting 

 through roots as well as for 

 digging. The chief use of 

 the pick in gardens is to 

 loosen hard soil, pick up -old 

 paths, and to do any work of this nature for 

 which a strong and heavy tool is required. 



Tools for Loosening Soil and 

 Cutting Tools Pickaxe and 

 Mattock. 



These are tools which are closely allied 

 to the pick, being modifications of it in 

 form. The pickaxe is shown at A. It 

 will be noticed that one arm is in the 

 form of an axe, and the other in the 

 form of an adze, as in the left-hand 'side 

 of the garden pick shown above. Some- 

 times this form of pick has one of its 

 arms in the form of an axe, instead of 

 taking the adze form ; but whatever its 



shape may be, whether adze-like or axe- 

 like, it is used for the same purpose, 

 namely, for loosening hard soil and for 

 cutting roots. The pickaxe, as at A, 

 with one arm like an axe and the other 

 like an adze, is used more especially for 

 taking up the roots of trees that have 

 been felled, or for uprooting trees. An- 

 other form of pickaxe, known as a mat- 

 tock, is shown at B. It has a broad 

 adze-like blade on one side of the socket 

 only.* Its shape, when viewed from the 

 top, is shown at c. It is used for 

 loosening surfaces and masses of earth 

 that are not so hard as to necessitate 

 the use of the pick. It is also used for 

 taking up trees, shrubs, c., from which 



A. PICKAXE. B. MATTOCK. C. VIEW OF MATTOCK FROM 

 TOP, SHOWING SHAPE OF IRON. 



it is sometimes called a grubbing-axe, 

 and for earthing up potatoes, from which 

 it is frequently called a hoe-axe, as it 

 combines the functions of the two tools, 

 namely, that of the axe in loosening the 

 soil between the rows, and that of the 

 hoe in drawing the earth up to and 

 around the haulm of the potato in the 

 form of a small bank or mound. The 

 mattock is sometimes called a grubbing- 

 axe, or grubbing-hoe. It is sold by 

 weight, and varies from 3 lb., the smaller 

 size, to 5^ lb., the largest size, there 

 being a difference of \ lb. in all the 

 intermediate sizes. Hoes, on the contrary, 

 as will be seen, are estimated by the 



