BAISING SEED. 



157 



bed, a more convenient plan, probably, would be to con- 

 struct a number of smaller frames, eight or ten feet 

 square, over which the cloth may be stretched and 

 securely fastened, a sufficient number of these frames 

 being provided to cover the ^beds. Such frames, well 

 braced, with their covering, could be removed when no 

 longer needed and put away for future use. If the 

 cloth is treated with a single coating of white lead and 

 oil, it will last for several years. 



Still another method may be more economical. 

 The frames may be made, and properly braced with di- 

 agonal pieces inserted at the corners, flush with the 





FIG. 22. SETTING PLANTS BY HAND. 



upper edges of the plank. The cloth or canvas should 

 be cut some three inches longer and wider than the 

 frame and hemmed along the edges. Eyelet holes 

 worked along the edges make it easy to fasten the 

 canvas to hooks, pegs or nails driven in the outer faces 

 of the frame, two or three inches below the upper edge. 

 Constructed in this manner, the canvas may be rolled up 

 so as to let in the air and sunlight to harden the plants, 

 see Fig. 16. Such coverings for beds amount to a pos- 

 itive insurance of the plants at a very small expense, 

 for the cost of a frame and canvas to cover one hundred 

 yards need not exceed four dollars, as the price of suit- 



