CHAPTER V GARDEN TOOLS

Are so important in the proper care of the garden and for the ease with which it may be worked that only the best should be considered; the best, however, need not be the most expensive, but they should be the best adapted to the work to be attempted. It is not necessary that their number be large, indeed, the number of tools really indispensable is relatively small, but definite. A good steel garden rake will be one of the first tools required and this should be of the steel variety, neither too light nor too heavy. Get a good spade with a "D" handle that fits the hand and foot. A wheelbarrow of the wooden sideboard construction will also be required; to these will be added a garden line and a hand cultivator and as this is the most expensive and important tool its selection is of much moment. There are54 three forms of wheel hoes on the market: the high single wheel, the medium wheel and the low double wheel made to straddle the rows. The double wheeled machines have the advantage of working each side of the row, close to the plants as well as between the rows and if the hoes or cultivator teeth are properly adjusted will do twice the work of a single wheel. Some of the double wheeled cultivators are readily changed into single wheels by removing one wheel. Too high a wheel is not desirable, and as the wheel is the part of the cultivator that bears most of the strain it should be of substantial construction. Most of the machines on the market have as attachments a set of plough blades, four harrow teeth and hoe. My own—a Planet Junior, two-wheel cultivator has also an attachment for creating a dust-mulch, similar to a scuffle-hoe, but this was made especially for the machine by a local blacksmith and is a very useful addition to the outfit.

If one does not object to the extra expense a seeding attachment can be added that will minimize55 the work of planting the garden. A good machine with seeder that will plant in rows and with all the attachments can be purchased for $16.00 or the same machine which will sow in rows and also in hills 4, 6, 8, 12, or 24 inches apart can be purchased for $19.00 and is a good buy, for a good machine of this kind, if properly cared for, kept under shelter when not in use, oiled occasionally, the attachments kept sharpened and given an occasional coat of paint as required is good for twenty years at least. There are still cheaper machines on the market, single wheel implements with the usual attachments, that will do good work, for as little as $5.25 and $7.50, and two wheelers at $10.00 and one single wheel that is especially designed for wear, with an iron instead of wire wheel, built for service at $7.00.

To this assortment of tools should be added a straight edged garden hoe, or any preferred shaped edge, and a scuffle-hoe. This last is obtainable in 6, 8, 9, and 10 inch blade and costs ninety cents for the 6 inch and $1.00 for the 9 inch size; the ten inch does more rapid work56 and can be run between rows planted twelve to fifteen inches wide, clearing the entire space between in one operation so that one goes over the ground very rapidly. Useful in any one's hands it is pre?minently a woman's tool, no lame and aching back accompanies its use as one does not lean over in hoeing as with the common garden hoe. If I could have but one tool to garden with I think it would be a scuffle-hoe, for no other tool will keep the garden so free from weeds. With the common garden hoe my paths through the garden are usually marked by the wreckage of plants, for use as much care as I can sooner or later I get to hoeing too vigorously and off goes a cabbage, tomato or onion. The scuffle-hoe does not seem to arouse an excess of energy; one goes along smoothly and serenely, leaving clean tilth and undepleted rows of vegetables in one's wake and looking back at the end of each row sees that it is good.

A trowel—or a number of them is better—is a very necessary implement and because one is prone to mislay trowels, or leave one at the hotbed57 when going for plants it is well to have one for each place and either to attach it to a string to one's belt—if only one is possessed, or to attach a bright red cloth to the handle that it may be identified if dropped among weeds, loose earth or grass for the trowel seems to have a chameleon like nature and takes on the color of its surroundings and becomes invisible to the eye once it has left one's hand. The bright color will save many moments wasted time in looking for it and has proved its worth on more than one occasion. In purchasing a trowel selection should be made of the sort that has the blade and handle in one; this construction, if of steel, will insure a tool that will last until worn out by use, the trowel with a wooden handle has usually a flimsy blade and a handle that is not dependable.

A garden line and reel that may be purchased for $1.75 is a convenient thing to have when laying out lines for planting, but a very good substitute can be produced from an old broom handle and a ball of butcher's twine by sawing the handle into two eighteen inch58 lengths, boring a hole in one end of each piece and sharpening the other end, passing the ends of the cord through the hole and making a knot too large to slip through the hole, makes the line more convenient to handle than if tied around the stick, as it cannot slip in winding, or any ingenious boy with simple tools can copy the regular reel in a short time. A very simple, home made tool for marking rows equal distances apart consists of a straight pole of wood with a cross piece at one end, fifteen, eighteen or twenty-four inches on each end from the center pole and provided with triangular pieces at the ends and in the center for markers, or wooden rake teeth may be set in holes provided for them. This is drawn along the ground and makes one, two or three rows at one operation. The construction of two or three of these markers is a short job and they save a considerable amount of time in laying out the garden. The twenty-four inch marker can also be used for marking the twelve inch rows by adjusting the pegs. The hand cultivators with seeding attachments have also a marker59 which while seeding one row marks out the following one.

A watering pot and some kind of spraying apparatus for the use of insecticides will also be needed. A rubber bulb with perforated metal top and bent neck, such as is used for spraying house plants is an excellent thing to use where the use of wood alcohol is indicated. Paris green may be applied from a fine-nosed watering pot if liquid form is used or if a dry application is preferred a common mason quart can with the porcelain lining of the top removed and the latter punched full of holes makes an effective distributor when filled with dry lime or flour and Paris green or hellebore. I have never seen a hand atomizer or spray pump or powder blow gun that was a particle of use; the tyrian sprinklers, however, are practical and useful for spraying in a small way for aphis, red spider and for squash bugs. A knapsack or auto-sprayer with galvanized iron reservoir can be purchased for $6.25, with brass reservoir for $9.50 and is a good investment where there are small fruits—currants,60 gooseberries, and small trees—and is profitable for a neighborhood garden investment if one does not wish to go to the entire expense for a small garden. Something of the kind is indispensable where potatoes are grown, though for a small patch hand picking of bugs is preferable. A garden fork will be needed in the fall when the potatoes, carrots, parsnips and other root vegetables are to be dug and as wide a one as available should be purchased as the more roots one can lift at a time the more quickly the work will progress. A spading fork is very useful in the garden in loosening the earth about plants, planted a considerable distance apart, when heavy rain has beaten the earth down hard and is especially useful for cultivating about berry plants, young fruit trees and grape vines, where the use of a spade would injure the roots of the plant.

A manure barrel, while not a tool, is a valuable accessory of the garden and its use will notably increase the yield of certain vegetables. A large lard barrel is a good sort to use and it must be prepared by burning out the lard which will61 likely adhere to it, or it may be washed out with strong soapsuds or lye—a more tedious process. A hole large enough to receive a wooden spigot should be bored a couple of inches above the bottom of the barrel. The barrel should be placed on a firm support—a heavy wooden box answering the purpose, high enough to allow a watering pot to stand beneath the spigot; three or four inches of straw are then placed in the bottom of the barrel for drainage and should come well above the spigot hole; the barrel is then filled full of manure and water turned in until brimming full; a close cover to exclude flies completes the preparation. When the manure liquid is required it is only necessary to place the watering can in position, open the spigot and allow the liquid to run until the can is full. After drawing off a supply of liquid an equal amount of water should be returned to the barrel to keep it always full and ready for use. When first established the liquid will be very strong and it will be best to dilute it, using half water and half liquid, and liquid manure should never be used when the62 ground is dry, but always after a rain or artificial watering.

A barrel once filled can be used over and over again until the liquid begins to appear pale in color, when the manure should be removed from the barrel and fresh supplied. If there is only a limited demand for this fertilizer, one filling will last out the summer, but where there are a number of uses for it it will need one or more renewals. Any kind of animal manure may be used—that from the horse stable being usually the most available but use may be made of the manure from the cow stable, the sheep pen or the rabbit hutches, but not from the poultry houses as this form is too strong to be used in liquid form, though its use in dry form is excellent for many vegetables.

Tomato supports are among the useful adjuncts of the garden and very good home made ones can be provided by utilizing the wire hoops that come around barrels, stapling them to four stout stakes; by their use a considerably larger63 number of plants can be grown in a given area and the care and gathering of the fruit will be far pleasanter than where the vines are allowed to lie on the ground.