168 PEEMANENT NUESEEIES. 



ner, without trespassing on the province of Forest Utilisation, the 

 best implements to use for the purpose. They are felling-axes, 

 bill-hooks, picks, grubbing-axes and the hoe-axe. 



Felling-axes and bill-hooks are too well-known, for all practical 

 purposes, to need any special notice here. A complete account of 

 them will be found in any work on Forest Utilisation. 



Picks. — There are several varieties of picks, some having point- 

 ed, others cutting, ends. As they are used for penetrating and 

 loosening hard soils or gravels, or for cutting roots among-*' gritty 

 and stony particles, they require their ends to be well steeled and 

 tempered. All varieties of picks agree in being curved, the radi- 

 ous of curvature being more or less equal to the combined length 

 of the handle and the labourer's arm. The best form of this tool 

 is the pick-axe (Fig. 13), one end of which is pointed and the 

 other flattened into a cutting edge at right angles to the direction 

 of the handle. The length of the head may be from 24 to 30 

 inches, that of the handle about 3 feet, and the width of the cut- 

 ting-edge from 3 to 4 inches, or even more, if circumstances render 

 it desirable. 



The grubbing-AXB. — Figs 14 and 15 represent two common and 

 ■very useful forms of this implement. It is used for uncovering and 

 undermining, as well as for cutting, roots. The handle is of the 

 same length as that of the pick. The term mattock is used in- 

 differently to designate this as well as the tool next described. 



The Hoe-axe. This is somewhat similar in construction and em- 

 ployment to the transversely flattened edge of the preceding imple- 

 ment, but is more strongly made and broader, and has a longer 

 handle. Its use is chiefly to cut up bushes by the crown of the 

 roots. Figs. 16 and 17 represent two common forms. 



Instead of first felUng a tree and then extracting the stump, 

 the easiest and quickest, as well as the most economical and 

 effective plan is, after uncovering the main roots, to cut through 

 these. The force of the wind alone, aided if necessary by a Httle 

 pushing or pulling, causes the tree to lean over to one side far 

 enough for the immense leverage of the crown and trunk, as the 

 tree falls, to rend asunder all the smaller and lower roots. The 

 extraction is thus immediate and complete. This mode of oper- 

 ating also shakes and breaks up the soil very effectively, thereby 

 facilitating the future tillage. 



The next operation is to level the ground. In the plains, if the 

 surface of the soil is more or less even and has only a slight slope, 

 and provided the length of the nursery in the direction of the slopa 



