Garden Tools That Really Help 
N AN article on “Tools that Help in 
June,” in the June, 1907, GARDEN MAGa- 
ZINE the author states that $7.00 must be paid 
for a wheel hoe and that the fine rakes are 
of no value. 
I have a single-wheeled wheel hoe for 
which I paid $3.75, which helps me every 
garden month of the year. It has a mold 
board plow, a scuffle hoe, a double end 
diamond cultivator (one end being small 
and the other large), and an 8-inch fine 
rake. With this implement, a large steel 
garden rake, a spading fork, and a trowel I 
am enabled, in the few hours I have each 
week after office hours, to thoroughly cultivate 
my 80 x go ft. garden and still have time 
for social relaxation and to indulge my fancy 
for fine poultry. 
I have the garden plowed in the fall, 
turning under a liberal supply of well decayed 
manure, to eliminate the cut worm, grub, 
etc., as far as possible. When spring comes, 
I can, by loosening the soil with the plow 
(plowing each furrow both ways for greater 
depth), get moisture-loving seeds such as 
Prizetaker onion, early smooth peas and the 
English broad bean in the ground long before 
a horse plow could be used at all. It is of 
course necessary to use the large steel garden 
rake to pulverize the soil properly for these 
small seeds. For potatoes I open a furrow 
as deeply as possible (the soil having been 
previously loosened as above, but not raked), 
place the seed, set the mold board as 
shallow as possible, and cover the seed by 
passing on each side of the deep furrow 
containing the seed. 
With the diamond cultivator furrows for 
medium sized seeds, such as beans of all 
kinds, onion sets, peas, etc., can be opened 
and all subsequent deep cultivation done. 
With the scuffle hoe a dust mulch is main- 
tained, weeds cut off and even sod may be 
lifted. 
The real labor saving tool, however, and 
the one with which work will be done that 
would otherwise go undone is the 8-inch 
rake, the despised tool of the other writer. 
With it a better dust mulch can be main- 
tained with less exertion than any other way 
I know. It also eliminates the danger 
of injuring those plants which have 
fibrous roots comparatively near the surface 
and of cutting off the others. With it the 
weeds can be uprooted thoroughly, quickly, 
and easily. It can be so set (at different 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
angles) as to either draw the dirt up to the 
plant, work it to the centre or leave the surface 
perfectly flat. With it the terrors of a straw- 
berry bed are entirely eliminated. I have one 
bed of 150 plants which I can cultivate both 
ways and on both sides of the row in from 
fifteen to twenty minutes. The “steady 
by jerks”? motion is necessarily required for 
this tool. 
I do not claim superiority over the higher 
priced implement for the cheap one except 
on one point, and that is, if I may use the 
term, its greater diffusibility on account of 
its low price. There are a great many peo- 
ple like myself who either cannot or do not 
care to spend so much money on that sort 
of thing, and for them this tool supplies a 
pressing need. 
When buying a wheel hoe be sure that it 
is so arranged as to permit of an easy adjust- 
ment of the angle at which the tool enters the 
soil and of the height of the handles. The line 
of resistance changes with the different tools 
and with the same tool at different depths, 
and as the point at which one can apply 
the greatest force with the least exertion re- 
mains the same for each separate person, the’ 
importance of the above can readily be 
appreciated. By the line of resistance I mean 
a line drawn from the point of greatest con- 
tact to the point at which the force applied 
will produce the greatest amount of power. 
This is all very easily determined when the 
tool is put into actual use. 
If a seed drill is wanted, and they are 
economy on account of the smaller amount 
of seed used and the consequent reduction 
in the labor of thinning, one can be procured 
of any of the leading seedsmen for one 
dollar, which will do good work. 
Illinois. Ino 18), Wwiie. 
The Cockscomb Elm Gall 
Te cockscomb elm gall is made by an 
aphis or plant louse. The galls 
appear about the first of May as slightly 
elevated ridges on the upper side of the leaf. 
These increase in size, become thickened 
and irregularly corrugated and then, with 
their rosy tips, present a strong resemblance 
to the cock’s comb. Later the galls turn 
brown or black, cracks open and the inhabi- 
tants escape. These galls are rarely so 
abundant as to cause material injury to the 
tree, though deformed leaves may be rather 
numerous. Something may be accomplished 
Marcu, 1908 
by picking and destroying the infested leaves 
before the plant lice escape. 
As the eggs of these lice are deposited on 
the bark in the fall and remain there over 
winter it is possible that spraying with a lime 
sulphur wash in early spring before the 
leaves appear may result 1 in destroying many 
of them. 
New York. E. P. FELT. 
Starting in the Florist’s Business 
O MAN ever became a millionaire in 
the florist’s business, but there is a 
comfortable living for any active man and 
there is a demand for competent help at fair 
wages. The business still has a good future; 
there are no signs of overcrowding. 
No one can learn enough in one year to 
make even a back yard pay. An apprentice- 
ship of five or six years would be the very 
least in which one could become anywhere 
near proficient, and it would take possibly 
ten years. Neither can one learn enough 
in any one place. He must spend one to 
two years each in several places to learn 
different methods and get acquainted with 
different conditions. Beginners get ten 
dollars a week, if active and willing; the 
second year twelve dollars, later fifteen 
dollars or more, according to ability. 
When starting in business, one needs as 
much capital as can be secured, but nothing 
less than $5,000 will do. 
In a town of 10,000 or 11,000 inhabitants, 
if there are no other greenhouses or florists’ 
establishments, the outlook would seem prom- 
ising, but, of course, everything depends on 
the man, and the florist’s business cannot be 
learned in one day. I advise starting with 
a commercial house 25 x 100 ft. Such a 
house complete with potting shed attached 
will cost about $2,000. 
At the outset confine attention to subjects 
that are easily handled such as carnations, 
violets, sweet peas and bulbs, i.e., narcissus 
of various sorts, and Roman hyacinths. For 
greens grow some smilax and asparagus and 
small ferns also. In all probability you will 
have to create a demand for your products, 
and for the first year you will have to exert 
yourself considerably to supply the cus- 
tomers’ needs, even if you have to buy what 
is asked for. After the first year, you will 
know better what the particular locality 
requires. 
Raise for sale and home use bedding plants 
and early vegetable plants, e.g., cabbage, 
lettuce, tomatoes, egg plants, celery, peppers, 
etc. In such a town there ought to be a ready 
sale for vegetables at all times. Lettuce 
and tomatoes could be raised in the green- 
house in winter, but flowers ought to pay 
better; with four or five acres of ground at 
your disposal you ought to raise enough 
vegetables in summer to make the venture 
pay good interest. 
Be prepared for hard work. ‘The moment 
you build a greenhouse, you are tied down 
seven days a week, and in cold weather 
your nights are more or less disturbed, as the 
fires have to be kept going. 
New York. jp s scorn 
