372 PRACTICAL GARDENING. 



the best label for plants in private collections is zinc, 

 painted, and written on while wet ; we know they are not 

 impaired in twenty years. The next best, for all practical 

 purposes, is wood ; especially for all the nurseries, because, 

 painted, and written on while wet, they will last till the 

 plants are got rid of, and are very inexpensive. 



30. Sieves, of various sizes, to sift compost. 



31. Screens or Shades, generally of calico or canvas, on 

 wooden frames, to use for sheltering plants from wind, or 

 shading them from the sun. 



32. Baskets, of various shapes and sizes, for packing fruit, 

 gathering marketing, &c., as presents ; half-sieves, sieves, 

 bushels, loads, and barges, — technical terms for the different 

 sizes. 



33. Turf-Beater. — A good heavy slab of wood, two feet 

 long and a foot broad, and three inches thick on the middle 

 of the back, which is rounding; a hole is made sloping in 

 the centre of the wood, and of such a slope that it may be 

 lifted up and fall flat every time, by which two feet of the 

 turf is flattened at once. 



34. Lever. — An iron like a crowbar, spread out a little 

 and bent rather rounding, so that the end, which is made 

 like the claw of a hammer, can be put under a heavy weight 

 of any kind, and be lifted up by merely bending the thing 

 down ; but every stick or stake may be called a lever, when 

 used for the long end to give a great purchase : a spade or 

 fork is a lever when you are bending it down to raise a spit 

 of earth. 



HmTS TO AMATEUES. 



Eain-water is the best for watering plants of every descrip- 

 tion, and not a drop should be wasted ; every drain from a 

 house-top ought to be received in tanks or tubs, for pump- 

 water is to a certain extent injurious, and in some places very 

 much so ; nor is it the clearness of the water that bespeaks 

 its purity. IText to raiu, river-water is best, but by no means 

 so good. 



Mildew. — Black sulphur, sulphur vivum, flour of brim- 

 stone ; these are of use in a fine powder, for there is nothing 

 else that we know of to touch the mildew, and that wHL. We 

 have never paid much attention to the kind of sulphur we 



