116 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
(April, 
A Few Convenient Garden Tools. 
An old gardener always uses fewer and sim¬ 
pler tools, and does better work, than the no¬ 
vice. We will describe a few of the best, indeed 
about all that are essential for common opera¬ 
tions. A small outlay will purchase the whole 
of them, and the facility they give to garden 
work, will pay a very large interest on the cost. 
Let it be remembered, that a good implement, 
however high the price, is in the end cheaper 
than a poor one costing not a fourth as much. 
Light, well made garden tools, of cast steel, or 
spring steel, or of iron edged with steel, are al¬ 
ways to be preferred to those made wholly of 
iron. The former do not bend or batter, or 
break so easily; they cost a little more, but last 
much longer, do not rust readily, keep sharper, 
and are lighter and handier in every respect. 
The Spade is necessary to dig holes, drains, 
etc., to cut turf, to move small quantities of 
earth in making beds, etc., to divide masses of 
shrubs or other plants, to take up trees, and the 
like, but it no longer holds the place of honor. 
The Spading Fork, (fig. 1,) is the usurper. 
This is the implement for work¬ 
ing the soil. It penetrates the 
ground with greater ease, and 
lifts as much soil as the spade, 
leaving it light and crumbly, 
notin soggy lumps. We pre¬ 
fer a five tined fork, the tines 
bevel-backed, of the best steel, 
and gradually and very slight¬ 
ly increasing in width from the 
tread to the points, so as to 
prevent stones from catching 
between them. For moving loose earth, sand, 
compost, etc., a shovel is indispensable, except in 
very small gardens. So also is a common field hoe. 
The Reel and Line, (fig. 2,) of the form 
shown in our cut, is most conve¬ 
nient, but any cord wound upon 
a pointed stake, with another 
short stake attached to the end, 
will answer the purpose well. A 
strong cord of good size is prefer¬ 
able to a string. It should be 
strong enough to bear a hard pull. 
The garden line serves a more 
important purpose in giving a gar¬ 
den that symmetry and regularity 
which marks a well kept place, than any other 
implement. A long line made so strong as to 
bear stretching, yet so small in diameter as not 
to be swayed by the wind, is preferable. It 
should be housed at night away from dews. 
The Edging Knife, (fig 3.) Good grass 
sods are far preferable to the box plant as edg¬ 
ings for beds. The former, neatly cut and laid, 
and kept closely trimmed, are neater, 
more pleasing to the eye, and can be 
more readily “ mended,” than the box 
which often winter kills or fades in spots, 
and requires a year or two to acquire a 
respectable size. The grass edging can 
be in perfection in a month or two. To 
clip and trim the edges of the sod border, 
lg ' ' a half-moon shaped blade, with a handle 
like a spade, is convenient, but not indispen¬ 
sable; a sharpened spade is a good substitute. 
A Steel-toothed Rake, the head and teeth 
being all spring steel, and in one piece, 8 to 12 
inches wide, with the teeth long and well an¬ 
nealed so as not to bend easily, is essential for 
nice working of the soil, for pulverizing it, for 
mingling compost with the surface, and for dres- 
Fig. 2. 
sing ground walks, removing stones, lumps, etc. 
A Grass Rake (fig. 4,) is one of the most con¬ 
venient tools we have used. It is simply a hay 
rake, with at 
least twice as 
many teeth as 
the common hay 
rake. The teeth 
e shorter, and 
of course closer 
together. This s 
gathers up the * 
clippings’.of the ' Flg ' 
grass plot or lawn very clean. We do not make 
’hay in the garden, and the grass never should 
be more than 4 inches high. All that this rake 
will not gather, is best left on the sward as a 
mulch for the roots; it will not show, perceptibly. 
The Shuffle Hoe, (fig. 5,) often wrongly 
called “ scuffle hoe,” is a very convenient im- 
jjtwj plement for working among plants. 
BM If provided with a long handle, it 
if saves the back from many an ache, 
M and some wear of fingers. The 
blade should have both edges sharp, 
/ . | and then in shuffling it backward 
an( * f° r ward, it cuts both ways, 
severing the weeds, and leaving 
Fig- 5 - them on the surface, and lighten¬ 
ing the soil. We advise its general adoption. 
Dibbles, (fig. 6,) of which we present two 
kinds, are simply round pointed pieces of wood 
r iron for making holes in which 
to set out plants or cuttings rapid¬ 
ly. But we do not advise their use . 
in general, for though convenient, 
a much better hole is made with a 
trowel or flat stick, inserted and 
pressed to one side; the soil is not 
then compressed on all sides. Still 
the dibbles are very convenient in 
rapid work, and in the field. The spur on the long 
one regulates the depth to which it maybe thrust. 
The Garden Trowel, (fig. 7,) is very con¬ 
venient for lifting and transplanting, digging 
holes, etc. It is like a common small mortar 
trowel, with the sides 
curved upwards 
little. Our American 
made garden trowels ■ Fi “ - 
are less curved than the English manufactured 
ones, which form nearly or quite half a cylin¬ 
der ; the former are preferable, as they do not 
cling to the soil, while they answer all purposes. 
A Knife-blade Trowel or weeder, (fig. 8,) 
was recently shown to us by Mr. Theodore Holt, 
a gardener of this city, now a missionary horti¬ 
culturist at Port Royal, S. C. It consists of a 
| blade of steel, an inch and 
a half wide, and 6£ in- 
Fig- §• ches long, tapering with 
a gradual curve to a point, the shank raised at 
right angles to the blade, which is sharp at both 
edges, and nearly flat on the upper side. The 
use of the implement is in weeding, and thin¬ 
ning out all kinds of vegetables and other plan ts 
sowed in rows, and one a little familiar with it, 
does this tedious work with ease and rapidity. 
The Spud, (fig. 9,) is a stout chisel upon the 
end of a cane. It should be in the gardener’s 
1 
Fig. 6. 
Fig. 9. 
or master’s hand whenever he walks through 
his grounds; and wherever a weed of any 
considerable size shows itself, the spud should 
seek out its root, deep down under the sod 
or spreading close to the surface, and cutting it 
off, leave the plant to wither where it stood, or 
to be easily pulled up. This is good for thistles. 
is a little im- 
'l 
m 
The Weeding Fork, (fig. 10,) is a little im¬ 
plement, which we have taken 
great satisfaction in using of late 
years. It is the spading fork on a 
one-hand scale. Penetrating the soil 
about four inches, it loosens it thor¬ 
oughly near the roots of plants, 
and in places where the spading 
fork can not be used. At the same i 
time it greatly facilitates the up¬ 
rooting of weeds. For working Fig. 10. 
strawberry beds it is a most excellent implement. 
Bayonet or Onion Hoe, (fig. 11.) This is 
a sharp-pointed, double edged steel implement, 
about 8 inches long and 1| inches wide at the 
broadest part, tapering down to a point. It is 
set like a common hoe, upon a handle 4 or 4i 
feet long. "We use it more than any other garden 
implement. The point turned to either side, is 
convenient for 
working among 
all kinds of plants, 
and for digging 
drills, loosening 
r- 
Fig. 11. 
up the ground, etc. The long edge answers the 
purpose of the common hoe for cutting weeds, 
loosening the soil without heaping it up, etc. 
Mr. Holt’s trowel, (fig. 8,) with the shank curved 
so as to bring the middle of the blade in front of 
a long handle, and three inches distant, would 
be still better than the bayonet hoe, we think. 
Earliness of Grapes. 
At a meeting of Fruit Growers in Rochester, 
last Fall, Mr. Barry spoke of the Rebecca grape 
as “ a high flavored grape, as good as a fine 
Muscat.” Mr. Hoag regarded it as “a very su¬ 
perior grape,” etc., etc. We agree with these 
gentlemen, thus far; but when they speak of it 
as ripening much earlier than the Diana, we can 
not accord with them. In our experience, it is 
eatable a little earlier, but it does not get its juices 
matured and perfected so as to be really ripe 
and delicious until the Diana is fit to be gather¬ 
ed into the same basket. The longer it hangs 
upon the vine without exposure to hard frosts, j 
the better. Two baskets of them lie on our j 
table now as we write, (Jan. 10th,); those cut i 
early, have a green, watery look, as if imperfect¬ 
ly ripened; those cut later, have a golden, semi¬ 
transparent, sunny aspect, and they are much 
sweeter than the others.—There are several new 
grapes, of which we hoped to hear more last 
Fall, and among them the Cuyahoga and Cre- 
velling. (The Crevelling is called by some “ Cata- 
wissa,” by others “Bloom.”) So far as we 
have heard, little new testimony has been giv¬ 
en to their excellence. Those who advertise 
these and other novelties, should have brought 
the fruit before our various Pomological Socie¬ 
ties and Fairs, last Fall, and obtained their im¬ 
partial opinions. If the propagators can not 
get a favorable verdict for their fruit from such 
sources, the probability is that it is not worthy 
of public notice. If they can, this favorable 
judgment will be worth a hundred fold more to 
the vender than the most flaming advertisements 
or the loud puffings of interested persons. We 
suspect, however, that the two grapes above 
mentioned are worthy of all the commendation 
that has been bestowed on them. They are 
both superior to the Hartford Prolific and Con- 
