COLD FRAMES. WINTER PROTECTION. 73 



them into some shelter at night and exposing them to 

 light and air during the day ; this will harden them to 

 endure their winter quarters in the cellar. Once placed 

 in the cellar, if cool and moist, as cellars usually are, no 

 water should be given until they are again moved out to 

 the light in May. Eemember that thus immersed in the 

 dark cellar in their dormant state, water or moisture will 

 injure them beyond recovery, unless they have become 

 unusually dry. 



Shallow cold frames are used for keeping Pansies, Car- 

 nations, Daisies, Forget-me-nots, Primroses/ Auriculas, 

 etc., over winter. They are formed by using a ten or 

 twelve inch board for the back and a seven or nine inch 

 board for the front of the frame, which should be of a 

 width that can be covered by a six-foot sash. All of the 

 plants above named, will keep safely over winter without 

 other covering than the sash, but if wanted for early 

 flowers, it will pay well to cover at night with shutters, or, 

 better, with straw mats. There has been recently intro- 

 duced a thin, light fabric, which has been named "protect- 

 ing cloth," which, after April 25th, answers all the pur- 

 poses of sashes in this latitude. "When all danger of severe 

 freezing is past, and at a time when greenhouses get 

 crowded with bedding plants, such as Geraniums, Ver- 

 benas, Eoses, or other plants that can be grown at a low 

 temperature, the covering with this cloth will answer 

 quite as well as sashes in fact, in inexperienced hands, 

 better, for there is no danger of the frames being too 

 much heated when so covered, as is the case with sashes, 

 if ventilation has been neglected. " Sashes " formed of 

 the protecting cloth can be made for twenty-five or thirty 

 cents each, as the cloth can be bought for nine or ten 

 cents per yard, and all that is necessary is to tack it on to 

 a light frame and you have a cover as useful during the 

 months of May and June as a glass sash would be, costing 

 ten times as much. We have also found this covering of 



