PREPARING THE GROUND. 



37 



turfing-hoe is used for this purpose, made of plate-steel, 

 about six inches wide, and ten inches long. Before using 

 the hoe, however, the dexterous workman cuts his turf in 

 strips, twelve inches wide, with a cleaver or .ax. (See 

 fig. 10.) The average cost of turfing is now twenty-five 

 cents per square rod, or $40 per acre. The next step, 

 after loosening the turf, is to remove it ; and to accomplish 

 this, the " floats " may be conveyed to the shore, either 

 on barrows or railroad cars, and used in constructing the 



Fig. 10. CUTTING AND PARING TURF. 



surrounding fence. Twenty-five cents per square rod is 

 the price usually paid for "hauling off" the turf and 

 building the fence, or wall. 



After freeing the ground from turf, the stumps should 

 cut off even with the surface, upon those portions of 

 the meadow which are to be sanded, and removed en- 

 tirely from those parts where the sand may be plowed up 

 from beneath. 



Some of our successful growers consider it a waste of 

 time and money to take up stumps, saying " the vines 



