78 
GARDENS AND THEIR MEANING 
necessary for him to perform skillfully the work of his own 
small domain without too much expense, and to realize that 
hands are, after all, about the best all-round tools. 
This brings us face to face with the all-important question 
as to what tools are positively needed in a school garden, and 
what they will cost. Some of the articles recommended are 
so simple that they can hardly be called tools except by cour- 
tesy ; and yet the list has been found to meet amply all de- 
mands of everyday planting. According to the use to which 
they are put, there may be said to be three generic tools. 
These are the plow, the harrow, and the cultivator. On 
small grounds the spading fork answers for the plow, the 
rake for the harrow, and the hoe for the cultivator ; in fact, 
eight simple tools are quite enough \o make a fairly good 
outfit. The large tools selected will be the spade, spading 
fork, hoe, and rake ; the small tools will be the trowel, 
excelsior weeder, a heavy iron spoon with an iron handle, 
skewers, and wooden labels. The labels and skewers can 
be whittled out by beginners in woodworking. Children so 
occupied will be doing real things and will thoroughly enjoy 
doing them. 
For general use in the garden the list should be increased 
by a garden hose, a few watering pots, garden lines, and a 
•wheelbarrow. The large tools are confined almost entirely to 
the work of preparation ; consequently it is not necessary to 
have one tool for each pupil. To have a scant supply of small 
tools, on the other hand, so that the children would have to 
await their turn, would be false economy. In a garden class 
nobody should be idle for a single moment ; this might well 
be called the First Law of the Garden. As an estimate of 
what tools, if properly managed, will fully answer the needs 
of a class of thirty, the following list is proposed : six spades, 
twelve trowels, six watering pots, six spading forks, one dozen 
