78 GARDENS AND THEIR MEANING 



necessary for him to perform skillfully the work of his own 

 small domain without too much expense, and to realize that 

 hands are, after all, about the best all-round tools. 



This brings us face to face with the all-important question 

 as to what tools are positively needed in a school garden, and 

 what they will cost. Some of the articles recommended are 

 so simple that they can hardly be called tools except by cour- 

 tesy ; and yet the list has been found to meet amply all de- 

 mands of everyday planting. According to the use to which 

 they are put, there may be said to be three generic tools. 

 These are the plow, the harrow, and the cultivator. On 

 small grounds the spading fork answers for the plow, the 

 rake for the harrow, and the hoe for the cultivator ; in fact, 

 eight simple tools are quite enough to make a fairly good 

 outfit. The large tools selected will be the spade, spading 

 fork, hoe, and rake ; the small tools will be the trowel, 

 excelsior weeder, a heavy iron spoon with an iron handle, 

 skewers, and wooden labels. The labels and skewers can 

 be whittled out by beginners in woodworking. Children so 

 occupied will be doing real things and will thoroughly enjoy 

 doing them. 



For general use in the garden the list should be increased 

 by a garden hose, a few watering pots, garden lines, and a 

 wheelbarrow. The large tools are confined almost entirely to 

 the work of preparation ; consequently it is not necessary to 

 have one tool for each pupil. To have a scant supply of small 

 tools, on the other hand, so that the children would have to 

 await their turn, would be false economy. In a garden class 

 nobody should be idle for a single moment ; this might well 

 be called the First Law of the Garden. As an estimate of 

 what tools, if properly managed, will fully answer the needs 

 of a class of thirty, the following list is proposed : six spades, 

 twelve trowels, six watering pots, six spading forks, one dozen 



