Three new Garden Tools. 257 



We put the net over the cherry trees when the blossom begins to expand 

 (which is generally about the beginning of March), or a little before the ex- 

 pansion of the blossom if the weather is frosty. About the latter end of 

 April the woollen net and stakes are taken away, and a single herring-net put 

 close over the tree to protect the ripe fruit from the birds. Fire heat is put 

 to the wall about the middle of February, and continued until the middle of 

 May, or a little later some seasons ; for, although we gather ripe fruit in the 

 latter end of April or beginning of May, it is generally the latter end of June 

 before the whole crop is off.* It is generally about the latter end of June 

 before May Duke cherries upon an unflued south wall ripen here. 



With regard to the vine wall here, heat is applied, and the net put on, about 

 the latter end of April, or when the buds have broken ; when the fruit is 

 thoroughly set, which is generally about the latter end of June, the net and 

 stakes are removed. When the fruit begins to colour, a single net is put up, 

 to protect it from birds ; in autumn, a double net is again put up, to protect 

 the fruit from heavy showers of rain and hail. Hamburg and Muscadine 

 grapes upon this wall begin to ripen in September, but fire heat is continued 

 till the whole crop is gathered and the wood ripened. We use coal dross 

 in all our furnaces. Flues in cherry walls require cleaning every four or five 

 years ; those on vine walls once in three years. The dampers are 18 in. 

 wide. Our furnaces are built similar to those recommended by the lale Mr. 

 Walter Nicol. 



Should the foregoing statement not be deemed suf&ciently explicit, I shall 

 be most happy to endeavour to supply any further information you may require. 



Erskine House Gardens, March 25. 1841. 



Art. VI. Notice of Three nexu Garden J^ools. By H. 



As you approved of the tool I described in the Gardener's Gazette for the 

 3d of April, p. 212., I think a notice and figures of a few others which I 

 have been in the habit of using may not prove unacceptable to the readers of 

 the Gardener^ Magazine. 



A Drill Rake. — Fig. 40. is an implement 

 I use for drawing drills for seeds, and which 

 I have called a drill rake. I had the teeth 

 cut from a common hay rake, and three 

 pieces of beech, each piece 2 in. wide 

 and half an inch thick, screwed on to the 

 head of the rake, so as to have each piece 

 3 in. deep in the clear, and to be 

 placed at 1 ft. apart ; or for drills at 

 9 in. apart I have four pieces. This pig. 40. Drill Rake. 

 I find a most useful and labour-saving tool, 

 and I hope it will come into general use ; as also 



A Sickle Hoe (fg. 42.), which I had made for loosening the ground about 

 autumn-sown and planted crops. As will be seen by the figure, it is made in 

 the shape of a sickle, or reaping-hook, of iron rod three eighths of an inch in 

 diameter, and about 10 in. long in the turn, the part which enters the 

 ground to be brought to an edge like that of a narrow chisel. I deem it one 

 of the most essential points in the culture of culinary vegetables to keep the 

 ground about them constantly stirred to the depth of a few inches, much 

 depending on the crops and time of year. In the spring and summer, the 



* That a cherry tree should produce a succession of ripe fruit for so 

 lengthened a period may seem strange; it is nevertheless true. We gather 

 ripe fruit from the young bearing shoots laid close to the wall long before the 

 blossom expands on spurs not so closely attached. 



s 2 



