1892 



(iLKANlXtJS IN 15KK CUl/rURE. 



H4I 



qiiarrcliiij;. t'spcoially wiili iirw mcii. 'Tlicy 

 will ilii: iln' liiu-li i\\ iiM' ilir w idili ol ilic spade 

 niul lia\»' the liottoiii in siu-li a a l<\\ ani slia|)c 

 tliat (lie tilrs i-an nut belaid inic and rt'^ular. 

 Tlu' cM'iisc is. ilial ilir\ ran imiwoik in so nai- 

 row a diti'li. Where a man won't do as you 

 \visl> to have iiini do. or as he sees othei's do. 1 

 wouKi tiiiii him oil' and hire soniehody who 

 wouiii. May he yon think this ik)i's not sound 

 like sonn' of my teachings: hut I moan, of 

 course, that you are to use mild measures first. 

 If that iilan iiot>s not answci-, tiien state the 

 case kindly Imt lii'rnly. And. Ii\- the way. No. ti 

 is a most valual)le tool to hav(> in thi' market- 

 garden or on the farm. We have three of them 

 —two with long handles and one with a short 

 handle: and tiiese ditching-spades are almost 

 always wanted for a variety of pui'poses. If 

 you want to take up trees they are far ahead of 

 a common spade: for where the tool is a good 

 one it can he used almost like a crowbar. For 

 digging horseradish, or digging rhubarb roots 

 for sale, taking up Egyptian onions, parsnips, 

 carrots, vegetable oysters, and the like, they are 

 the best thing in the world. The (joint is so 

 narrow you can dig a dock out of your straw- 

 berry-bed and not in.iure very much besides the 

 dock. If you have not had one on your prem- 

 ises, just let the boys get hold of one and see 

 how they will learn to "go for" it. 



'>o.^^ 



HOW TO DIG, EVEN IN HAKD CLAY, AND DO IT EASILY 



No. 7 is a tool that I never owned until I saw- 

 it recommended in the tile-book. When you 

 are ditching through rich ground, take off the 

 rich black surface soil with a common spade. 

 Clean out the ditch down to the yellow dirt. 

 Throw this good dirt to one side, and the rest 

 of the soil (the poor clay) on the other side. 

 Now take No. 7 and push it down full depth. 

 Tnless you have learned how. you will say you 

 can't do it — th(^ ground is too hard. I tnink, 

 my friend. I can push both the spades. Nos. (i 

 and 7. down full depth on the hardest ground 

 you have. If the ground is full of stones I can 

 still do it and get out the stones quicker than 

 you can do it with a pick or grubbing-hoe, 

 and I will have a straight narrow ditch all 

 ready for tiles quicker than a big stout man 

 who works in the old-faslii(jned way. The se- 

 cret of being able to do this is shown by the 

 cut, and I copy here from the tile-book itself: 



u|><in the >|i:i(le witli ;i (luick inipul^e, and uork- 

 inu 1 lie li.'inille sliMliI h hai'k and I'otI li in syiiipal liy 

 Willi 111. ■ flldilsor lln' fiMil. II will l:ike Ironi Iw'o 

 or I liree lo si\ or einlil " sIioncs " lo send ;i sixlccn- 

 incli sjiade " Inline, " (he nuinlier vaiyintr wil li the 

 Iniidness iir stiininess of llie cla.N and llic skill and 

 iniisclf iif the di^i-ncr. Tlie besl wajtojjrel lliis nin- 

 liiin is Id watcli a real expert ami net liiin In tearh 

 you. I almost ne\ cr iKSea pick or mattnck. A gund 

 (lltcliiiiK-spado well liamlled will (liff almost any 

 tliiiifr but the stoniest clayey gi'avel faster alone 

 than Willi I lie lielp(?) of the i)ick, b.v working (truuiKt 

 the stones. 



No. 8 is to be used much like No. 2. Thc^ tool 

 we use, iiovvever. has flat tines instead of round 

 ones, as shown in the cut. The tines are flat 

 on the inside and rounded on the outside. It is 

 called th<^ (illiiig-hook; but it is useful in a 

 great variety of places on tlii^ farm or in the 

 garden. It will pull straw out of a slack, pull 

 manure on to a stoneboat. level down hum- 

 mocks in the field, dig potatoes on an emergency, 

 and do a variety of such work. With a set of 

 tools like these, many kinds of work as well as 

 underdraining may be done: and a man who is 

 expert in the use of tools will oftentimes do 

 double the work by having .fust the tool he re- 

 qui'-es. 



We presume that you can find these tools at 

 your nearest hardware store; and, in fact, it is 

 usually the best way to get them, on account of 

 the expense of ship- 

 ping such bulky arti- 

 cles. If, however, you 

 prefer to get theni of 

 us, we can furnish 

 them as follows: No. 

 1, U.2f); Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 

 6, 75 cts. each; and No. 

 8,50cts. No.7,?1.25. A 

 single tool is rather 

 expensive to send by 

 express; and it is also 

 rather expensive and 

 inconvenient to send 

 by freight unless it 

 goes along with other 

 goods. If. however, 

 you should want several tools they can be made 

 into a bundle so as to go by freight at moderate 

 expense. In case you do not buy of us, the fig- 

 ures above may indicate to you about what 

 prices you ouglit to pay. 



UONT BUKY THE SI'ADK. 



The first point in rapid, easy dipfsrinf?, is to lieep 

 line side-edffe of t)ie spade mtt ot the mtih, iuxioht, 

 cacli spjidef ul. Fig-. 21 sliows liow a non-expert will 

 liury both edg-es of the spade at y/i, ),j,kl. w», and 

 liave liarder work tliere.by. botli in sinkiiijr tlie 

 spade and in breaking- off tlie slice of earth. Fifr. 'i2 

 shows liow an expert will sink liis spade; ali, cd, cf, 

 heinf? the curves cut by the spade, and the edfce a 

 being- " out " the first cut, and tlie edge r being out 

 the second cut, and so on. Thus held, the spade 

 sinks more easily, and the oitr edg:e bi-eaks oft' true 

 and easily. 



SINKING THE SPADE. 



This is done by a succes-sion of quick " shoves " or 

 thrusts with the foot, throwing: one's whole weight 



TKANSPLANTING FliOM OaiEENIIOUSES OR COLD- 

 FRAMES INTO THE FIELD. 



There is one thing in friend Day's tomato-book 

 that pleased me greatly. It was, a recognition 

 of the fact that there is a tremendous gain in 

 moving plants to the field with dirt adhering to 

 theirroots: and heeven moves his tomato-plants 

 in this way, for planting out acre after acre. I 

 have for years been satisfied of the importance 

 of this, but yet the whole great wide world, al- 

 most, seems stupid in regard to the matter. They 

 say it is too much fuss, and takes up too much 

 time, and so they let the dirt rattle off, some- 

 times taking the tine roots with it, and lo.se half 

 of their crop, then <iuit the business, etc. To- 

 day we are moving celery - plants from the 

 greenhouse to the field. After the plants are 

 thoroughly wetted down in the bed, a scoop- 

 shovel is pushed under a sod of plant.s. These 

 scoop-shovels are caiTied to the field in a wheel- 

 barrow. Each man has one; and as he sets the 

 plants he picks them fi-om the shovel with a ball 

 of rich (^arth adhering to the root, and places it 

 in the furrow. Of course, the plants will live— 

 everyone of them— and grow outdoors just as 

 they gr(>w in the greenhouse. If you haven't 

 scoop-shovels enough, gather up your barn- 

 shovels, potato-forks, etc.. and use those. 



