ew England are made with short handles, thus--

[Illustration: Figs. 65, 66.--COMMON SHOVEL AND SPADE.]

They are of cast-steel, and combine great strength and lightness.
Long-handled shovels and spades are much preferred, usually, by Irish
laborers, whose fancy is worth consulting in matters with which they
have so much to do. We believe their notion is correct, that the
long-handled tool is the easier to work with, at almost any job.

In our own draining, we find the common spade, with long or short
handle, to be best in marking out the lines in turf; and either the
spade or common shovel, according to the nature of the soil, most
convenient in removing the first foot of earth.

After this, if the pick is used, a long-handled round-pointed shovel,
now in common use on our farms, is found convenient, until the ditch is
too narrow for its use. Then the same shovel, turned up at the sides so
as to form a narrow scoop, will be found better than any tool we yet
have to remove this loosened earth.

[Illustration: Figs. 67, 68.--LONG-HANDLED ROUND SHOVEL. SCOOP SHOVEL.]

Of all the tools that we have ever seen in the hands of an Irishman, in
ditching, nothing approximates to the true Irish spade. It is a very
clumsy, ungainly-looking implement used in the old country both for
ditching, and for ridging for potatoes, being varied somewhat in width,
according to the intended use. For stony soil, it is made narrower and
stronger, while for the bog it is broader and lighter. The Irish
blacksmiths in this country usually know how to make them, and we have
got up a pattern of them, which are manufactured by Laighton and Lufkin,
edge-tool makers, of Auburn, N. H., which have been tested, and found to
suit the ideas of the Irish workmen.

This is a correct portrait of an Irish spade of our own pattern, which
has done more in opening two miles of drains on our own farm, than any
other implement.

The spade of the Laighton and Lufkin pattern weighs 5 lbs., without the
handle, and is eighteen inches long. It is of iron, except about eight
inches of the blade, which is of cast steel, tempered and polished like
a chopping axe. It is considerably curved, and the workmen suit their
own taste as to the degree of curvature, by putting the tool under a
log or rock, and bending it to suit themselves. It is a powerful, strong
implement, and will cut off a root of an inch or two diameter as readily
as an axe. The handle is of tough ash, a