172 
THE CULTIVATOR 
May, 
Pruning and Grafting Shears. 
Good treatment of fruit trees is always promoted by 
convenient tools; and the excuses for negligence are les¬ 
sened with every facility for their proper management. 
For many of the operations of pruning, shortening-in 
peaches, &c., where branches not over an inch in diame¬ 
ter are to be cut off, the hand-shears will be found ex¬ 
ceedingly convenient, and do the work with thrice the 
rapidity of the knife. 
These are usually made as shown in the annexed figure, 
(Fig. 1,) and their great power depends upon the “ draw- 
cut,” or sawing motion imparted to the blade by their 
peculiar construction. The principal cutting blade has a 
movable center, so that when the handles are pressed 
together, the connecting bar a draws this blade down¬ 
wards, giving it .a compound motion, and increasing its 
power many fold over the simple cutting movement of a 
pair of scissors. The spring b serves to throw the shears 
open when not under the pressure of the hand. 
This instrument has been known among gardeners for 
many years. A much simpler mode of obtaining the full 
power of this draw-cut , more especially as applied to cut¬ 
ting off and slitting stocks for grafting, was described 
some years since in the u Fruit Culturist.”* It may 
however, be applied with equal advantage to any kind 
of shears for pruning. The annexed figure, (Fig 2,) re¬ 
blade A, two or three inches long, is set at an angle with 
the handle B, of about a hundred and twenty degrees; 
and for this very reason, when the shears are closing, the 
Fig. 3. 
blade makes a draw-cut towards the concave bed C, 
which is placed against the stock to be cut. A tree an 
inch in diameter is chipped square off by this tool, with 
as much ease as a jack-knife will clip a carrot. This 
grafting instrument may be at once transformed into 
* This instrument was invented and successfully used, by the late 
Abel Thomas, of Aurora, Cayuga co., N. Y., and has since been 
proved of great value by those who have adopted .its use; the writer of 
this notice after fifteen years trial cast speak confidently of its merits. 
shears for pruning, by substituting for the bed-piece C, 
another and blunter blade, Fig. 3. 
In order to make the principle of the working part of 
this instrument more clearly understood, we annex two 
simple figures, (Fig. 4,) 
the one representing the 
objectionable mode, 
sometimes adopted, of 
placing the pivot at the 
angle in the blade, the 
dotted lines (which are 
nothing more than circles 
described around the pi¬ 
vot a as a center,) clear¬ 
ly showing that this blade 
cuts only at right angles, 
and consequently does not possess the power of the other 
blade, where the pivot being placed below the angle, the 
cut is made obliquely,—it has the draw - cut . 
We havedieen surprised that so few persons have ever 
used this improved form, and that its merits appear to be 
so little known, although several years have elapsed since 
it was made public. Not only in journals of the day, 
but in elaborately written books, the old construction 
alone is given. Within a few years, an ingenious but 
complex “ stock-splitter” was figured and described in 
the Horticulturist, by A. Foote, of Williamstown, Mass., 
and has been much commended; but although great 
force is given to the blade by the handle and small wheel, 
yet it lacks the draw-cut , and the power, possessed by 
the instrument already described. Our object in thus 
alluding to this subject is not only to call the attention 
of cultivators, but to induce some of our excellent 
American cutlers to improve the instruments they are 
now manufacturing. 
Guano and Lime. 
Wm. Boulware of Ya., has furnished the American 
Farmer the statement of an interesting experiment, show¬ 
ing that guano is not so evanescent in soils as it has gen¬ 
erally been believed to be. Three years ago, 50 bushels 
of lime per acre was applied to a field of corn in spring. 
The next autumn, two acres of this field were dressed 
with 200 lbs. of Patagonian Guano, and the whole field 
sown with wheat. A part was sown with clover the next 
spring. The wheat looked much the best on the guanoed 
part during spring, but lost much of its superiority in the 
drouth of summer, the soil being light. But the clover 
took well, and the next year yielded a luxuriant crop 
after the guano, but on other parts of the field was not 
worth cutting. After the second crop of clover, wheat 
was again sown, and on the two guanoed acres it was one 
hundred per cent better than on that which was limed 
only, and otherwise of equal fertility. 
Reducing Bones for Manure. —The American Farm¬ 
er gives the following method of reducing crushed bones 
without sulphuric acid. Mix two bushels of ashes and 
one of salt, with each bushel of crushed bones; moisten 
the bones first, and leave the whole in pie four or five 
weeks before using the mixture, shovelling it over two 
or three times during that period.” 
i 
\ \ 
lb / 1 
Fig . 4. 
