110 



UTENSILS USED IN HORTICULTURE. 



necessary to employ them over next winter's crops of salads and other 

 vegetables requiring their protection. They propose to sell them at 

 from lOd. to Is. each, according to the quantities required, and a small 

 addition for package and carriage will put them down in every part of 

 the kingdom. Messrs. Breffit and Co. have offices at 83, Upper 

 Thames-street, E.C. ; stores at Free Trade Wharf, Broad-street, 

 Ratcliff, E., and 120, Duke-street, Liverpool the seat of manufacture 

 being at Castleford, near Normanton, Yorkshire." 



The common hand-glass is formed either square, or of five or more 

 sides of equal length and height, the latter commonly not more 

 than eight or twelve inches. The framework is of lead, cast-iron, 

 tinned wrought-iron, copper, or zinc ; the last is much the cheapest, 

 and also the lightest, and when kept well painted, it will last as 

 long as cast-iron, which with the moisture of the soil soon becomes 

 rusty at the lower edge. Cast-iron hand-glasses being very heavy, are 

 commonly formed in two pieces ; and when the form is square, air is 

 very conveniently given by changing the position of the cover-part, so 

 that its angles may project over the sides of the lower part. 



The following substitute for bell-glasses may be readily adopted by 

 any gardener who can get pieces of broken window-glass from his 

 frames or hothouses, and who has a glazier's patent diamond, which 



Pig. 81. 



Substitutes for bell-glasses. 



differs from the common diamond in this, that any person can cut 

 with it. Having procured the diamond, and several pieces of broken 

 window-glass, cut the latter into figures corresponding in size and form 

 to the sides of four or six-sided prisms, as shown in fig. 81. When 

 the pieces of glass are properly cut out by a wooden or card pattern, 

 join them together with strips of tape, about three-eighths of an inch 

 wide, made to adhere to the glass with india-rubber varnish. After 

 the glass is formed, varnish over the tape, and the whole will be found 

 firm and durable. A loop may be formed at top either of the tape 

 or of wire, so as to lift them by. Glasses of this sort may be made 

 from six inches to a foot in diameter, and will at all events be found 

 useful for striking cuttings or protecting rising seeds. The cheapness of 

 glass renders such expedients almost unnecessary. Even hand-glasses 

 are being rapidly superseded by the use of Rendle's Fruit-tree and Plant 

 Protectors. These have a base of tile, and a smooth glass top, and are 

 thus endowed with a greater power of resisting cold than common 



