For many purposes, tools that scrape or scarify the surface are preferable to hoes that dig up the ground. Weeds may be kept down by cutting them off, as in walks and often in flower-beds, rather than by rooting them out. Figure 98 shows such a tool, and a home-made implement answering the same purpose is illustrated in Fig. 99. This latter tool is easily made from strong band-iron. Another type is suggested in Fig. 100, representing a slicing-hoe made by fastening a sheet of good metal to the tines of a broken fork. The kind chiefly in the market is shown in Fig. 101.

Home made scarifier or acraper.

100. Home-made scarifier or acraper.

The common scarifier.

101. The common scarifier.