Book III. 



IMPLEMENTS OF GARDENING. 



231 



1462. The platform is of two species. 



1463. The portable platform combines a step-ladder and platform, which in part comes 

 to pieces, and in part folds together, so as readily to be carried from place to place, and 

 to occupy little room in a tool-house. 



1464. The wheel-platform {fig. 209.) is a flat surface of boards 

 generally five or six feet square, elevated by a frame with wheels ; 

 it can thus be moved along lawns or walks, and is used chiefly in 

 clipping lofty hedges. A variety of this, used in some places, has 

 folding steps or boards on two sides, supported by brackets, by 

 which three men at different heights, and one on the ground, can 

 proceed with dressing the whole side of a hedge at once. Such a 

 machine is used in shearing the magnificent hornbeam hedges in 

 the imperial gardens at Schcenbrunn, and those of spruce fir at 

 Petrowsky, near Moscow. 



1465. The boat-scythe, for mowing weeds in ponds, is a machine 

 invented by General Betancourt, now of Petersburgh, consisting of 

 a boat with a system of wheels and pinions placed in the head, which give motion to a 

 vertical shaft, containing on its lower end (which passes through the bottom of the boat 

 into the water) three scythes ; two men communicate motion to the machinery, and one 

 man rows the boat ; the upright shafts on which the scythes are placed, can be raised or 

 lowered according to the depth of the weeds, &c. This machine has been improved by 

 General Betancourt, but is capable of being further simplified. 



1466. The garden sharping-engine is of several sorts. 



1467. The grindstone, as well as whetstone, scythestone, hone for penknives, (the last used 

 in making cuttings of heath and such like plants,) are necessary in every garden. Blunt 

 spades, hoes, or knives should never be used, as they cannot operate properly in the hands 

 of the most expert gardener. 



1 4 68. Tree-tra tispla n ting machines of two 

 or more species have been invented. The pole 

 and wheels (^/ig. 210.) is for general pur- 

 poses the best of any of them. It consists of 

 a long beam or pole, attached to an axle and 

 wheels. The tree being prepared for removal, 

 and the pole placed in a vertical position 

 against it, the stem or trunk is attached to it 

 by ropes ; thus attached, they are brought into 

 a horizontal position, by men or horses, with 

 the ball of earth attached to the tree. Horses 

 may then be yoked to the axle at the oppo- 

 site end of the pole, or root end of the tree, 

 with or without the aid of another axle, and 

 the tree drawn to any distance and planted. 

 In favorable climates, and when a little extra 

 expence is no object, astonishing effects may 

 be produced by removing large trees; and 

 no machine is better adapted for aiding in 

 the labor than this simple union of the pole and cart-axle. 



1469. The German devil is a frame of timber, with a cylinder moved by a combination 

 of wheels, and a winch, as in raising clay or earth from pits or mines by manual labor. 

 But instead of the bucket of clay, three hooks are attached to the end of the lifting rope, 

 and these are fastened to the roots. (See Hunter s Evelyn's Sylva.) 



1 470. The hydrostatic press (fig. 211.) may 2 1 1 

 be applied to the same purpose as the Ger- 

 man devil, with incomparably greater effect. 

 The only difficulty is in finding a proper and 

 convenient fulcrum ; that done, this engine 

 will root out the largest trees. It is suc- 

 cessfully employed by engineers in drawing 

 piles, gate-posts, raising stones, &c. (See 

 Kicholson's Arch. Diet. art. Hydrostatic 

 Press.) 



1471. The garden-seed sejxirater is a small 

 portable threshing machine, on Meikle's prin- 

 ciple, but fed, in Lee's manner, from a hopper, and with a winnowing machine either under 

 or connected with it. (fig. 283.) 



1472. The essential machines of garden-labor may be considered the wheelbarrow 

 roller, and hand forcing-pump. 



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