116 MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES USED IN HORTICULTURE. 



{ectors P ' 



ferent kinds, and oiled-paper frames, are used for the same purposes, 

 Netting of straw-ropes, formed by first stretching ropes as weft afe 

 regular distances, and then crossing them by others as woof, are some- 

 times used to protect wall-trees. Another mode of protecting trees 

 by straw-ropes, is by placing poles against the wall, in 

 Fig. 88. front of the trees, at from four to six feet asunder : 

 thrusting their lower ends into the earth about eighteen 

 inches or two feet from the wall, and making them fast 

 at top to the coping, or to the wall immediately under 

 it ; straw or hay ropes are then passed from pole to pole, 

 taking a turn round each, and leaving a distance of about 

 eighteen inches between each horizontal line of ropes. 

 Straw ropes may also be used to protect early rows of 

 peas or other plants, by first hooping over each row, and 

 afterwards passing three or four ropes from hoop to hoop. 

 Of course they act by checking radiation, and their in- 

 fluence will be greatest when they are placed between a 

 foot and eighteen inches from the wall, the amount of 

 heat reflected back diminishing in a geometrical ratio 

 Wisps of straw according to the distance of the covering from the body 

 t0 be P rotected ' Wisps of straw tied to a string, fig. 88, 

 and hung in lines one above another in front of a wall, 

 are also used for the same purpose as straw ropes, and in sheltered 

 places are perhaps better. 



Mats of straw or reeds are used for protecting plants in the open 

 garden, and also for covering glazed sashes, whether of pits, frames, 

 or hothouses. Every gardener ought to know how to construct these, 

 in order to be able to employ his men within-doors in severe weather. 

 The following directions are given by P. Lindegaard, late gardener to 

 the King of Denmark, who used them extensively, and who states 

 that they produce a considerable saving of fuel, afford a great security 

 from accidents, such as breaking glass, and not only retain heat 

 much better than bast mats, but, from their greater porosity, allow 

 the steam of moist hotbeds to pass off more readily. When a heavy 

 fall of snow takes place during the night, bast mats are not so easy 

 to get cleaned and dried the next morning as straw mats, because 

 they retain the moisture, and get frozen and stiff by the frost pene- 

 trating through them ; and hence the next evening they cannot be 

 put on again without the risk of breaking the glass. Mr. Linde- 

 gaard found four hundred straw mats sufficient to cover four hun- 

 dred lights, for which if he had used bast mats, about twelve hundred 

 would have been required. These mats are made of rye or wheat 

 straw, or of reeds, and only in the winter time, when the weather 

 is unfit for working out of doors. They are made in frames in the 

 following manner: An oblong frame (fig, 89) is formed of four 

 laths, along the two ends of which, a, a, are driven as many nails as 

 you wish to have binding cords, 5, 6, of which the usual number is 

 six to a width of four feet, as the strength of the mat depends chiefly 

 on the number of these cords. The cords are of tarred rope-yarn ; 



