Book III. 



IMPLEMENTS OF GARDENING. 



283 



1393. In gravel-screens the wires are placed wider, according to the use to which the 

 gravel is to be applied. In general, one quarter of an inch is the width for earth, and 

 half an inch for garden-gravel ; but for gravel used in the highways, one inch is not 

 too wide for excluding small stuff, nor two inches too narrow for admitting the stonelets 

 to be used. 



1394. Garden-sieves are of various kinds. The mould-sieve, is a piece of cloth of wire 

 firmly attached to a circular rim, and the holes or interstices need not be above one 

 fourth of an inch in diameter. It is used for sifting mould for small pots ; sieves are 

 also required in gardening, for cleaning seeds; and wooden sieves of different kinds for 

 airing or keeping fruit. 



1 395. Utensils of dejiortaiion are, the mould-scuttle, pot-carrier, basket, and packing-case. 



1396. The mould-scuttle is a wooden box for carrying sifted earth in situations where the 

 wheelbarrow cannot be brought into use. Sometimes it is made of iron, like the 

 common coal-scuttle. 



1397. The pot-carrier is an oblong board, with a hoop-handle in the middle: it is used 

 for carrying pots of plants from one part of the garden to another. A wire sieve answers 

 the same purpose ; but it is an ill application of that utensil, and besides occupies both 

 hands, and requires stooping. 



1398. Garden-baskets are of several species and varieties, used for growing, carrying, 

 measuring, or keeping vegetable productions. They are woven or worked of the spray, 

 bark, or split woody fibre of trees, or of the young shoots of willow, hazel, and other shrubs. 



1399. The plant basket is a vessel of wicker-work, and shaped like a large pot, not less than eighteen inches 

 wide, by twenty inches deep, and is used by some nurserymen, and particularly by the Dutch, to grow 

 large peach-trees, vines, &c. for deportation. By the means of these baskets, when new garden-walls or 

 hot-houses are built, one, and often two years, may be saved in the fruit-trees ; the mode is at present a 

 good deal out of use, but deserves to be revived. 



1400. The planters' basket is a flat, rectangular utensil of wicker-work, or boards partitioned into three or 

 more parts, for the purpose of carrying with the gardener when about to plant or remove plants. One 

 division is for the plants taken up ; another for the plants to be planted ; and a third, for the tools which 

 lie uses, and for any decayed parts of plants, stones, weeds, or other refuse. By using such a basket the 

 young gardener may proceed in his operations with order, accuracy, and neatness. 



1401. The mould-basket is a strong reticulated utensil of unpeeled willows or hazel, used for carrying 

 earth, gravel, or tanners' bark. 



1402. Carrying-baskets and package-baskets are of various sizes, shapes, and qualities of material and 

 workmanship. Such as are large, coarse, and without handles are called hampers, and about London, 

 boats, barges, and other local names. 



1403. Measuring-baskets are chiefly in use by market-gardeners : the largest are bushels and half-bushels, 

 formed of unpeeled or peeled willow shoots or withies ; pecks and half-pecks are formed of peeled withies ; 

 and sieves, punnets, pottles, and thumbs, for the more rare culinary vegetables and fruits, are formed from 

 shavings of woody fibre. 



1404. The pla?it packing-case is of various species, according as plants in a growing 

 state, plants in a state of rest, and with or without leaves, cuttings, bulbs, or other roots, 

 or seeds, are to be packed. Each of these species varies also according to the distance to 

 which it is to be sent, climate, season of the year, and mode of conveyance. In 

 sending plants in leaf from this country to the continent, and the contrary, a close-bot- 

 tomed box hooped over (Jig. 172.), is generally used; 

 the cover of the upper part being either netting, or 

 if matting very frequently removed. 



1405. The glazed jmcking- case is the most suitable 

 for importing plants from distant countries. One 

 of this kind employed by Sir It. Farquhar, in send- 

 ing plants from the Mauritius to the Horticultural 

 Society (Jig. 173.), was made of inch boards, three 

 feet long, four feet wide, and twenty inches deep. 

 The sloping roof consisted of two glazed shutters 



173 



172 



' ! 1 



1 I I I T 



a 



E 



a 



& 



£ 



