Implements and Their Uses
It may seem to the reader that it is all very
well to make a garden with a pencil, but that
the work of transferring it to the soil must be
quite another problem and one entailing so
much work that he will leave it to the
professional market gardener. He possibly
pictures to himself some bent-kneed and
stoop-shouldered man with the hoe, and
decides that after all there is too much work
in the garden game. What a revelation
would be in store for him if he could witness
one day's operations in a modern market
garden! Very likely indeed not a hoe would
be seen during the entire visit. Modern
implements, within less than a generation,
have revolutionized gardening.
This is true of the small garden as certainly
as of the large one: in
fact, in proportion I am not sure but that it is
more so--because of
the second wonderful thing about modern garden
tools, that is, the low
prices at which they can be bought, considering
the enormous percentage
of labor saved in accomplishing results. There
is nothing in the way of
expense to prevent even the most modest gardener
acquiring, during a
few years, by the judicious expenditure of but a
few dollars annually,
a very complete outfit of tools that will
handsomely repay their cost.
While some garden tools have been improved
and developed out of all
resemblance to their original forms, others have
changed little in
generations, and in probability will remain ever
with us. There is a
thing or two to say about even the simplest of
them, however,--
especially to anyone not familiar with their
uses.
There are tools for use in every phase of
horticultural operations; for
preparing the ground, for planting the seed, for
cultivation, for
protecting crops from insects and disease, and
for harvesting.
First of all comes the ancient and honorable
spade, which, for small
garden plots, borders, beds, etc., must still be
relied upon for the
initial operation in gardening--breaking up the
soil. There are several
types, but any will answer the purpose. In
buying a spade look out for
two things: see that it is well strapped up the
handle in front and
back, and that it hangs well. In spading up
ground, especially soil
that is turfy or hard, the work may be made
easier by taking a strip not quite twice as wide
as the spade, and making diagonal cuts so that
one vertical edge of the spade at each thrust
cuts clean out to where
the soil has already been dug. The wide-tined
spading-fork is
frequently used instead of the spade, as it is
lighter and can be more
advantageously used to break up lumps and level
off surfaces. In most
soils it will do this work as well, if not
better, than the spade and
has the further good quality of being
serviceable as a fork too, thus
combining two tools in one. It should be more
generally known and used.
With the ordinary fork, used for handling manure
and gathering up
trash, weeds, etc., every gardener is familiar.
The type with oval,
slightly up-curved tines, five or six in number,
and a D handle, is the
most convenient and comfortable for garden use.
For areas large enough for a large rototiller,
it will be your best purchase.
There are many good makes. The requirements are
that it should turn
a clean, deep furrow. In deep soil that has long
been cultivated, plowing
should, with few exceptions, be down at least to
the subsoil; and if the
soil is shallow it will be advisable to turn up
a little of the subsoil, at each
plowing--not more than an inch--in order that
the soil may gradually be
deepened.
Tools For Preparing The
Seed Bed
Tools For Fighting Plant Enemies |
