The Busy Woman s Garden Book 



and can be run between rows planted twelve to 

 fifteen inches wide, clearing the entire space be- 

 tween in one operation so that one goes over the 

 ground very rapidly. Useful in any one's hands 

 it is preeminently a woman's tool, no lame and 

 aching back accompanies its use as one does not 

 lean over in hoeing as with the common garden 

 hoe. If I could have but one tool to garden with 

 I think it would be a scuffle-hoe, for no other tool 

 will keep the garden so free from weeds. With 

 the common garden hoe my paths through the 

 garden are usually marked by the wreckage of 

 plants, for use as much care as I can sooner or 

 later I get to hoeing too vigorously and off goes 

 a cabbage, tomato or onion. The scuffle-hoe 

 does not seem to arouse an excess of energy ; one 

 goes along smoothly and serenely, leaving clean 

 tilth and undepleted rows of vegetables in one's 

 iwake and looking back at the end of each row sees 

 that it is good. 



A trowel — or a number of them is better — is 

 a very necessary implement and because one is 

 prone to mislay trowels, or leave one at the hotbed 



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