[Note:J.C. Loudon's "Gardening Tools, Equipment and Buildings" was published as Part 3, Book 1 of JC Loudon's " Encyclopedia of Gardening". This edition was (1) edited by JCL in 1834 (2) re-published by Jane Web Loudon in 1850 (3) scanned, edited and re-titled by Tom Turner (TT) in 2005 (4) published in copyright, with Loudon's paragraph numbers retained so that scholars can find page numbers from the printed edition].
1688. The art of gardening in the earlier ages of society must have required but few tools. The spade and the pickaxe would be sufficient to loosen the earth and prepare it for the reception of the few plants that were required in the earliest gardens; but as civilisation advanced, and gardens increased in size and in the variety of their produce, additional tools would be required, and forks, hoes, and rakes were probably introduced. When fruit trees were collected into orchards, grafting, budding, and pruning knives, and all the other tools required for grafting, budding, and pruning, may have been invented, and all the various utensils used for watering must have been gradually brought into use. Walls and other garden structures, including plant-houses, belong to an advanced state of society; as the art of cultivating the ground must have long preceded that of growing plants in climates different to their own. The mechanical agents employed in gardening appear to have been thus gradually introduced, according as the advancing state of society induced a taste for conveniences and luxuries; and the operations of gardening must have been introduced in the same manner.
