HORTICULTUKE [TOOLS. beds, asli-beds, or common soil. Hoes and rakes made with a tapered neck and socket, into which the handle is fitted, do not clog so readily as when they are driven into a ferruled handle. For pruning purposes a variety of instruments have been invented, under the names of secateurs, pruning-shears, pruning-scissors, ifcc,, but nothing equals a well-tempered old-fashioned knife, varied in form, strength, and size to suit the particular object to be operated on. The averrun cator is a useful instrument for cutting branches at a con siderable elevation (12 to 15 feet) from the ground. Selby s flower gatherer (fig. 46), which cuts and holds the FIG. 46. Selby s Flower Gatherer. FIG. 47. Kidgway s Hedcre-Cutter. flower at the same time, may be recommended, especially for the use of ladies. Some of the fruit gatherers also are in genious and useful. A new instrument for clipping hedges, Ridgway s hedge-cutter (fig. 47), does its work quickly and well ; and the same can be said for Adie s new lawn-edging machine. For the destruction of insects Dean s and Appleby s and D reseller s fumigators are all useful, but an equally efficient plan is to put a few live embers in a flower-pot, raised on two bricks so placed as not to close the hole at the bottom ; on these embers moistened tobacco or tobacco paper is to be put, and over all damped moss. This will burn slowly and fill the house with smoke, care being taken that the material, as it dries, is lightly sprinkled with water, so that it does not burst into a flame. Sulphurators are instruments for distributing flowers of sulphur, for the purpose of destroying mildew. In the case of green house plants, such as heaths, simply dusting with sulphur through a mus lin bag or dredg er is sufficient ; but in cases where vines are attacked with the Oidium or vine-mildew, the saving of the crop depends on Fia *9. Epps s Sulphurator. the prompt diffusion of sulphur over all the affected parts, and this could not be so readily done by any other con trivance as by some one of the various forms of sulphurator (figs. 48, 49). For ths distribution of water in the form of spray, syringes are used, and of these there are none better than FIG. 48. Sulphurator. Read s patent, which acts by a piston and ball valve ; while for the more powerful garden engines, those manufactured by Read (fig. 50) and Warner have the preference. FIG. 50. Read s Garden Engine. Tallies of wood should be slightly smeared with white Tallies. paint and then written on while damp with a black-lead pencil. To preserve them from decay they should first be soaked in linseed oil. Zinc tallies are the best, on account of their durability, if written upon with a proper ink, 12 grains of bichloride of platinum dissolved in 1 oz. of dis tilled water. Larger labels of various materials and patterns are provided for trees and shrubs, and other permanent out door plants. Lead labels with stamped figures are very use ful. For numbering pot plants, these may be wedge-shaped and bent over close to the pot-rim ; for collections of plants they should be small and light, so that the suspending wire may not cut into the bark of the plants. Zinc labels with the names shown in relief are to be recommended when they can be obtained ready made, but are too expensive when they have to be specially prepared. IV. Garden Operations. 21. Propagation. The increase of plants, so far as the Propagi production of new individuals of particular kinds is con- tion. cerned, is one of the most important and constantly recur ring of gardening operations. In effecting this, various processes are adopted, which will now be described. (1) By Seeds. This may be called the natural means of increas- Seeds. ing the number of any particular kind of plant, but it is to bo remembered that we do not by that means secure an exact reproduction of the parent. We may get a progeny very closely resembling it, yet each plant possessing a distinct individuality of its own ; or we may get a progeny very unlike the parent, or a mixed progeny showing various degrees of divergence. Many seeds will grow freely if sown in a partially ripened state ; but as a general rule seeds have to be kept for some weeks or months in store, and hence they should be thoroughly ripened before being gathered. They should be sown in fine rich soil, and such as will not readily get consolidated. In the case of outdoor crops, if the soil is inclined to be heavy, it is a good plan to cover all the smaller seeds with a light compost. Very small seeds should only have a sprinkling of light earth or of sand, and sometimes only a thin layer of soft moss to exclude light and preserve an equable degree of moisture. Somewhat larger seeds sown indoors may be covered to the depth of one-eighth or one-fourth of an inch, according to their size. Outdoor crops require to be sown, the smaller se<-ds
from half an inch to an inch, and the larger ones from 2 to 4 inches
