TOOLS USED IN HORTICULTURE. 



13f> 



by two of these, one in each hand, growing- plants can be 

 taken up with balls, put temporarily into pots, and carried 

 from the reserve ground to the flower beds and borders, where 

 they can be turned out into the free soil, without sustaining any 

 injury. The trowel 6 is used for taking up plants and to lift soil 

 as a substitute for the hand, in potting plants. A trowel with 

 flat blade and a forked point is sometimes used for raising up 

 weeds from gravel or grass, and is called a weeding-trowel. The 

 weeding-hook, which is a narrow strap of iron forked at the 



lower extremity, and a wooden handle at the other, is 



also used for raising weeds. There is a variety of this, 



with a fulcrum, for rooting daisies and other broad-leaved 



weeds out of lawns, fig. SO. The use of the fulcrum is 



to admit of a long handle which renders it unnecessary p . 



for the operator to stoop. Some of these tools have short 



handles, to adapt them for infirm persons and children. 



401. Transplanters, figs. 31 and 32. These 

 tools are used as improved substitutes for the 

 transplanting trowel. In Saul's implement, fig. 

 31, the blades are opened by pressure on the lever 

 a ; and in the spade transplanter, fig. 32, the blades 

 are pressed together by moving the sliding-piece, 

 6, downwards ; and when the plant is carried to its 

 place of destination, they are opened by moving it 

 upwards. Both these transplanters are more 

 adapted for amateurs than for professional garden- 

 ers, and the manner in which they are to be used 

 is sufficiently obvious from the figures. Trans- 

 planters of this kind are generally supposed to be 

 of French origin, but we are informed that the 

 instrument of which fig. 31 is an improvement 

 was an invention of the Rev. Mr. Thornhill, 

 sT Saul's vicar of Staindrop, in the county of Durham, about 



transplanter. 1820 ; who used it extensively on his farm for 



transplanting turnips. 



402. Forks, figs. 33 and 34. The forks used in gardening are of two 

 kinds; broad -pronged forks, fig. 34, for 

 stirring the soil among growing plants, and 

 as a substitute for the spade in all cases 

 where that implement would be liable to 

 cut or injure roots ; and round -pronged 

 forks, fig. 33, for working with littery dung, 

 a, or for turning over tan, b. There are 

 hand- forks of both kinds, fig. 33, c, and 

 fig. 34, d, for working in glass-frames, 

 hotbeds, or pits. The digging-fork is al- Figt 34. 

 most as essential to every garden as the forks. 



spade ; and, wherever there are hotbeds, dung linings, or 

 Fig.33. Dung and tan- tan, the dung-fork with three prongs, fig. 33, a, and the 

 tan-fork with five prongs, &, cannot be dispensed with. 

 The three -pronged digging- fork, see fig. 34, is used for shallow digging, 

 or pointing fruit-tree borders, and also for taking up potatoes ; and the 



