TOOLS USED IN HORTICULTUKE. 



133 



■u hich are two pieces of iron which crown the upper edge of the blade for tlie 



f(CP f51 P^^T^s^ of receiving the foot of the operator, d ; and 

 the blade, e. As the hilt or tread projects over the 

 blade, however useful it may be in saving the soles of 

 the shoes of the operator, it is found in many soils to 

 impede the operation of digging, by preventing the 

 blade from freeing itself from the soil which adheres 

 to it. Hence, in some parts of the country, instead 

 of a hilt being put on the spade to save the shoes of 

 the operator, a plate of iron about two inches broad, 

 Fig. 24. Spades. with leather straps, called a tread, is tied to his shoe, 

 and effects the same purpose, while the spade requires much less cleaning. 

 The spade e is for free easily worked soil, and is that most frequently 

 used in gardens ; /, having the lower edge of the blade curved, enters 

 more easily into stiff soil, while the upper part of the blade on each 

 side of the hose being perforated, no soil can adhere there, and there- 

 fore spades of this form clean themselves, and in working are always 

 quite free from soil. The spade, g, has a semicylindrical blade, and 

 is without hilts ; it is chiefly used in executing new works, such as canals, 

 drains, ponds, &c., in strong clayey soil. In consequence of the cylindrical 

 form of the blade, and the lower extremity of it being applied to the soil 

 obliquely, it enters the ground as easily as the blade of the spade /, while 

 the sides separate the edges of the slice of earth from the firm soil ; and, 

 after it is lifted up, serve as a guide in throwing it to a distance. There is 

 a variety of this spade in which the blade, instead of being semi-cylindrical, 

 is a segment of a cylinder, and rather broader at the bottom or cutting edge 

 than at the tread. This breadth at the entering edge diminishes friction on 

 the sides of the upper part of the blade, by preventing them from pressing 

 hard against the earth while passing through ; in the same manner as the 

 oblique setting of the teeth of a saw prevents friction on the sides of the 

 blade. This spade also, from the greater breadth of the lower part of its 

 blade, lifts more completely the loose soil at the bottom of the furrow. It is 

 chiefly used in engineering works, and in digging or trenching stiff soil. The 

 handles of spades are almost always formed of sound root-cut ash, and their 

 blades of good iron pointed with steel. The blade is not set exactly in the 

 same plane as the handle, but at a small angle to it, in consequence of which, 

 when the blade is inserted in the soil, the elbow formed between the blade and 

 the handle serves as a fulcrum ; and the handle being thus applied to the 

 lever at a larger angle, has considerably more power in raising up the spitful. 

 Were the blade fixed to the handle in the same plane, and the blade in- 

 serted in the soil perpendicularly, the first exertion of the operator would 

 be employed in gaining that angle, which, in the former, is produced for 

 him by the manner in which the handle is joined to the blade. In the 

 Flemish and other continental spades, the blade is always fixed on in the 

 same plane as the handle ; but in these cases the blade is longer than it is 

 with us, and it is always entered at a considerable bevel ; and besides, the 

 soil is generally lighter than in Britain, and requires less exertion to pene- 

 trate and separate it. 



Shovels are seldom required for garden purposes, the broad blade of the 

 spade, fig. 24, e, serving as a substitute. 



308. Turf-spades^ fig. 25, are used for the purpose of paring very thin 



