TARRYTOWN LETTERS. 



265 



maple takes a slippery polish. For fine, light han- 

 dles, that the palm will stick to, butt cuts of poplar 

 or Cottonwood cannot be excelled, yet straight- 

 grained ash will bear more careless usage. 



The handles of Mrs. Tarryer's hoes are never 

 perfectly straight. All the bayonet class bend 

 downward in use half an inch or more ; all the 

 thrust-hoe handles bend up in a regular curve (like 

 a fiddle-bow turned over) two or three inches. Un- 

 less they are hung right, these hoes are very awk- 

 ward things. When perfectly fit for one, they may 

 not fit another — that is, a tall, keen-sighted person 

 cannot use the hoe that is just fit for a very short 

 one. 



Until young people become aware of these eternal 

 fitnesses they are not much good in the garden. 

 Those curves in the handles throw centers of gravity 

 where they belong. If a fresh weeder (dunng va- 

 cation, perhaps) pushes heedlessly ahead of his 

 business, the expert young women on~either side of 

 him may simultaneously drop considerable pebbles 

 from their deft hoe-blades into each pocket of his 

 flannel jacket ! Lack of ballast can be readily 

 hinted in this way, when thrust-hoe handles are 

 curved as aforesaid. Good timber generally warps 

 in a handle about right, only implement-makers and 

 babes in weeding may not know when it is made 

 fast right side up in the hoe. 



There are plenty of thrust-hoes in market, such 

 as they are. Some have 

 malleable iron sockets and 

 bows — heavier to the buy- 

 er and cheaper to the deal- 

 er — instead of wrought-iron 

 and steel, such as is required for true worth. 



There is a clumsy, imported, fish-spear pattern, 

 wrought or welded in one piece, which does fairly 

 for trimming flovv'er border turf edges. It has evi- 



dently fallen from grace in the hands of obfuscated 

 mechanics and the trade that "sells" the buyer 

 with its goods. 



Mr. Loudon has a number of obsolete old em- 

 blems of the "Dutch" or "scuffle-hoe" that sug- 

 gest better things for our Edens. Here are two 

 relics which prove that the 

 ancients understood the 

 virtue of pointed steel in 

 the garden. How many 

 of Loudon's pictures have 

 been patented in this coun- 

 try ? But he don't seem 

 to know that a broad blade 

 produces more friction and 

 will clog vexatiously with 

 soil when it is sticky with 

 dew or rain. The blades of Mrs. Tarryer's thrust- 

 hoes — -please take notice — are fastened to the small 

 feet of their slim bows with loose rivets, like mower- 

 knife sections, so that any one can readily replace a 

 worn-out blade upon occasion, while favorite han- 

 dles, sockets and bows will last, with care, for a 

 lifetime. 



Hidden in part by the lady's dress in the photo- 

 graph, unless the engraver has seen to it, is an om- 

 nipotent digger which must not be overlooked. I 

 don't see how women, or men either, can be thor- 

 oughly independent in the garden without it. For 

 turf, or any hard, rooty digging or light grubbing, 

 the cutting of bogs or the handling of tough clay or 

 hard-pan, nothing in the world can compete with it. 

 Put a malleable " D " handle on it, and we have a 

 wonderful swing shovel, capable of tossing a hun- 

 dred loads of stiff earth in a day easily. It is a 

 man's hoe — one that any man strong enough to be 

 gentle might be proud to know the use of, and worth 

 more to a woman than a bad husband. 



