132 THE SMALL COUNTRY PLACE 



spring-tooth cultivator is especially useful in stony 

 soil, its action being lifting rather than scraping or 

 dragging, as with many others. With the harrow or 

 cultivator, starting early in the spring when the ground 

 is soft, the land may be kept in a fine, mellow condi- 

 tion without the use of the plow. 



Weeders. After the surface of the ground has been 

 made fine and mellow the weeder will keep down all 

 weeds if run frequently enough, and with it spread wide 

 one can go over a large area in a short time. The weed- 

 ers with straight teeth do better work than those with 

 curved teeth, though the "adjustable weeders" which 

 have curved teeth are convenient for running between 

 narrow rows. 



Spades and Spading Forks become a necessity in 

 digging and planting trees and bush fruits, and in dig- 

 ging about young trees or in places where the plow will 

 not reach. The spading fork is more serviceable, and is 

 easily used where the soil is full of small stones or coarse 

 organic matter. 



Hoes and Rakes. While we may do nearly all of the 

 work about small trees and small fruit plants with the 

 cultivator, there will be some spaces where the hand hoe 

 must be used. As about all of the necessary stirring 

 of the soil is done by the cultivator or harrow, the only 

 use for the hoe is to cut up small weeds that grow 

 around the hills, and this hoe should have a thin, sharp 

 blade for cutting only. The triangular hoe shown in 

 Fig. 41 will be found the most satisfactory for all kinds 

 of garden hoeing except hilling up, and that can gen- 

 erally be best done with the cultivator or the hand 

 wheel-hoe. 



For stirring the soil among the rows of garden plants 

 where the cultivator cannot run, the steel-toothed gar- 

 den rake is a tool that will do more work than the hoe. 



