MACHINES USED IN HORTICULTURE. 



153 



common diamond in this, that any person can cut with it. Having procured 

 the diamond and several pieces of broken window-glass, cut the latter into 

 figures appropriate in size and form for the sides of four or six-sided prisms, 

 as shown in fig. 78. When the pieces of glass are properly cut out by a 

 wooden or card pattern, join them together with strips of tape, about three - 

 eighths of an inch wide, made to adhere to the glass with India-rubber 

 vamish. After the glass is formed, varnish over the tape, and the whole will 

 be found firm and durable. A loop may be formed at top either of the tape 

 or of wire, so as to lift them by. Glasses of this sort may be made from 

 six inches to a foot in diameter, and will at all events be found useful for 

 striking cuttings or protecting rising seeds. An excellent substitute for 

 hand-glasses will be described under the section on structures. 



436. Powdering-boxes for plants are required for dusting them with 

 powdered lime, sulphur, coarse snufF, powdered charcoal, fine sand, &c. 

 One of the most convenient forms is that of the common dredge-box, but 

 for the light powders an appendage to be hereafter described may be added 

 to the common bellows. All powders intended to rest on the leaves of 

 plants should be dusted over them when they are moist with dew, or by 

 having been previously watered. 



437. Other Utensils. — We have omitted to mention some used in very 

 extensive gardens, botanic gardens, and nurseries ; such as the glazed 

 packing-box ; the earthenware shelter, which may be described as an inverted 

 flower-pot, with the sides perforated with holes, or with a large opening on 

 one side ; plant-shades of various kinds ; utensils for entrapping or destroying 

 vermin ; bulb- glasses ; cast-iron pots for burning tobacco ; and a few other 

 articles not in general use, or readily substituted by others of a more simple 

 and economical kind. 



Sect. V. — Machines used in Horticulture. 



Machines differ from other horticultural implements in being less simple 

 in their construction, and in their action, enabling the operator to abridge 

 labour. The principal gardening machines are the wheelbarrow, roller, 

 watering engines, garden-bellows, and transporting or transplanting machines. 



438. Wheelbarrows for gardens are of two kinds : one of large dimensions 

 for wheeling littery dung, tan, short grass, leaves, haulm, or weeds ; and 

 another of moderate size (fig. 79), for wheeling soil and gravel. They are 



generally constructed of wood, 

 with the wheel also of wood 

 and shod with iron; but some 

 wheelbarrows are formed en- 

 tirely of cast and wrought 

 iron ; they are, however, too 

 heavy for wheeling anything 

 Fig. 79- Garden wheelbarrow. excepting littery dung or other 



light matters, and they are far from being so durable as a wooden barrow, 

 when the latter is kept well painted. Some dung and tan barrows have the 

 body or box attached to the handles or levers, commonly called trams, by 

 moveable iron bolts, so that it can be readily taken off and carried by two 

 men into places where the entire barrow with its wheel could not be 

 admitted ; for example, in fiUing the bark pit of a stove vdth tan or 

 leaves. There is a third kind of barrow used by engineers, in deep cuttings, 

 which has shallow sides of an equal height on every side of the bottom of 



