PREPARING THE GROUND. 



37 



turfing-hoe is used for this purpose, made of plate-steel, 

 about six inches wide, and ten inches long. Before using 

 the hoe, however, the dexterous workman cuts his turf in 

 strips, twelve inches wide, with a cleav^er or ax. (See 

 fig. 10.) The average cost of turfing is now tw^enty-five 

 cents per square rod, or $40 per acre. The next step, 

 after loosening the turf, is to remove it ; and to accomplish 

 this, the floats " may be conveyed to the shore, either 

 on barrows or railroad cars, and used in constructing the 



Fig. 10.— CUTTING AND PARING TURF. 



surrounding fence. Twenty-five cents per square rod is 

 the price usually paid for "hauling off*" the turf and 

 building the fence, or wall. 



After freeing the ground from turf, the stumps should 

 be cut off* even with the surface, upon those portions of 

 the meadow which are to be sanded, and removed en- 

 tirely from those parts where the sand may be plowed up 

 from beneath. 



Some of our successful growers consider it a waste of 

 time and money to take up stumps, saying the vines 



