nd held in place by a wedge
driven at the side of it, and can be knocked out readily when the spade
needs new steel, or any repair. The length of the handle is three feet
eight inches, and the diameter about one and one-fourth inches. The
wedge projects, and forms a "treader," broad and firm, on which the foot
comes down, to drive the spade into the ground.

[Illustration: Fig. 69.--IRISH SPADE.]

We have endeavored to have the market supplied with the Irish spades,
because, in the hands of such Irishmen as have used them "at home," we
find them a most effective tool. We are met with all sorts of reasonable
theoretical objections on the part of implement sellers, and of farmers,
who never saw an Irish spade in use. "Would not the tool be better if it
were wider and lighter," asks one. "I think it would be better if the
spur, or "treader," were movable and of iron, so as to be put on the
other side or in front," suggests another. "It seems as if it would work
better, if it were straight," adds a third. "Would it not hold the dirt
better if it were a little hollowing on the front," queries a fourth.
"No doubt," we reply, "there might be a very good implement made, wider
and lighter, without a wooden treader, and turned up at the sides, to
hold the earth better, but it would not be an Irish spade when finished.
Your theories may be all correct and demonstrable by the purest
mathematics, but the question is, with what tool will Patrick do the
most work? If he recognizes the Irish spade as an institution of his
country, as a part of 'home,' you might as well attempt to reason him
out of his faith in the Pope, as convince him that his spade is not
perfect." Our man, James, believes in the infallibility of both. There
is no digging on the farm that his spade is not adapted to. To mark out
a drain in the turf by a line, he mounts his spade with one foot, and
hops backward on the other, with a celerity surprising to behold. Then
he cuts the sod in squares, and, with a sleight of hand, which does not
come by nature, as Dogberry says reading and writing come, throws out
the first spit. When he comes on to the gravel or hard clay, where
another man would use a pick-axe, his heavy boot comes down upon the
treader, and drives the spade a foot or more deep; and if a root is
encountered, a blow or two easily severs it. The last foot at the bottom
of the four-foot drain, is cut out for the sole-tile only four and a
half inches wide, an