Purchasing Garden Equipment 
TOOLS THAT ARE NEEDED IN EVERYDAY GARDEN WORK — 
SOME EXCELLENT INNOVATIONS AND HINTS AS TO WHAT TO BUY 
by K. R. Dunn 
A useful trinity of tools, including the 
bow-headed rake 
The scarifier, Warren hoe, short-bladed and draw hoes 
are a good average assortment 
The wheel-hoe cultivates both sides of 
the row at once 
F ORMERLY they made gardens with a rake and a spade, and 
they got results, but they had more perseverance and 
patience than the dilettantes of my acquaintance. I find that 
where science has advanced in lessening garden labors that the 
results are better. So if this is your first year at breaking into 
gardening, you want to fend off any possible chance of mistake, 
and “launch yourself,’’ as Professor James said, “with as strong 
an impulse as possible, taking care that nothing shall spoil your 
enthusiasm until the gardening habit is formed.” 
As the first labors of the garden have to do with the preparation 
of the soil, we must consider first a hoe. I am taking for granted 
that your place is a small garden, and I would urge that you 
purchase a wheel-hoe. If you have any knack of tinkering 
with tools, this little garden assistant will be a joy to use. 
It has a small plow and efficiently turns over the ground. It 
has cultivator teeth and can cultivate deeply and then smooth 
the surface. Its hoes are of value in completing cultivation 
and breaking up clods of soil. It may then be turned into a 
seeder, and efficiently will sow a continuous row, or seed 
holes six, eight, twelve or twenty-four inches apart. In one 
operation it sows and covers, and this it will do for almost all 
vegetable garden seeds. If you do not have a wheel-hoe, 
you may get over the garden with a spade and a hoe and 
some backache. Of course, if your place begins to be ex¬ 
tensive, a plow and a harrow should be included in the equip¬ 
ment, but on the small place the wheel-hoe may be used 
instead of these. 
There are many makes of plows and harrows and nothing 
particular to be urged regarding them unless it be that you 
should get a reversible plow if pos¬ 
sible. Without this type you will find 
that as you cross and recross the 
garden you pile the dirt up first at 
one side and then at the other and work a great, deep furrow, that 
is sometimes very awkward. As to harrows, the ordinary, deep 
harrow that has lever control to change from deep work to sur¬ 
face cultivation comes in a variety of forms. The argument in 
favor of the disk-harrow is that it does not tear up the fertilizer 
and decaying vegetable matter that has been plowed under the 
soil, but loosens the dirt without pulling it to the exposed surface. 
In the small garden and 
beds the hoe and spade 
take the place of the plow. 
Most people prefer the in- 
(Continued on page 322) 
The prong hoe combines hoe 
and rake features 
Long handled pruning shears are in¬ 
dispensable for high work 
The spading fork, trowel, clippers and pruning shears are 
necessary implements contained in the garden basket 
(295) 
