MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES USED IN HORTICULTURE. 



169 



Fig. 104. Rule-joint ladder. Fig. 105. Orchard ladder. 



is a most convenient article ; because, when shut up, it may be carried 

 through a house much easier than a common ladder. For working among 

 climbing plants under glass, it is found to be particularly useful, as it may 

 be introduced in places where there is not room for a common ladder. For 

 pruning standard trees out of doors, it is particularly convenient, because it 

 can be thrust through the branches like a round pole, so as not to injure 

 them ; and when once it has got 

 to the desired place or position, it 

 can be opened, when the styles 

 will press the branches on one side 

 without injuring them. Orchard 

 ladders for pruning standard fruit- 

 trees, or gathering their fruit, are 

 of various kinds, some with two 

 legs to give them stability, and 

 others forming a triangle, with 

 horizontal pegs in each leg for 

 supporting planks, which cross 

 from one leg to the other, and on 

 which the operators stand. Fig. 

 104 is what is called a rule-joint ladder, for painting and repairing curvi- 

 linear glass roofs. The ladder fig. 105 is in common use in the south of 

 France and Switzerland, for gathering cherries. 



457. A Levelling Instrument of some kind is occasionally required in 

 gardens ; for example, when box edgings are to be taken up and replanted, 

 it is necessary to have the ground of exactly the same level on both sides 

 of the walk, and this can only be done by levelling across. The use of the 



level implies also the use of poles, homing pieces, and 

 other articles belonging to surveying, which, as every 

 one who can take levels must necessarily be familiar 

 with, we do not stop to describe. Fig. 106 is a more 

 convenient form for a garden level than that used 

 by bricklayers ; because, by the curvature on the un- 

 derside, the operator can more readily level across 

 raised gravel walks. 



458. Thermometers are requisite, more especially where there are plant 

 structures of any description ; and it will be very desirable to have terrestrial 

 thermometers for ascertaining the temperature of the soil in the open garden, 

 as well as of the soil, and of tan or dung beds, under glass. It is true that 

 a knowledge of the temperature of the soil in the open garden will not often 

 enable us to increase that temperature, but it will assist us in accounting 

 for particular effects ; and sometimes, as in the case of coldness produced 

 from the want of drainage, or from a non-conducting covering repelling the 

 rays of the sun, we have it in our power, by removing the cause, to remedy 

 the evil. To ascertain the temperature of the soil with reference to plants 

 growing in it, the bulb of the thermometer should be sunk to such a depth 

 as may correspond with the great mass of the roots, or between eight inches 

 and a foot. For plant-houses, a registering thermometer is a very desirable 

 instrument, as a check upon the attendants in the absence of the master, and 

 more especially in the night-time. That of Six is considered the best, and 

 requires no explanation. 



Fig. 106. Garden level. 



