38 FRENCH MARKET-GARDENING 



having due regard to ventilation and shading, each 

 cloche serves all the purposes of a miniature forcing 

 house. 



MATS. As one might expect, coverings of mats 

 or sacks were in use to protect plants long before even 

 cloches or frames were thought of. In these days 

 the mats mostly in use are made of rye straw. Each 

 mat is about 5 ft. to 6 ft. 

 6 in. long, and 4 ft. 6 in. wide, 

 weighs about n or 12 lb., 

 and is kept together by means 

 of five strings running across 

 the straw stems (see fig. 7). 

 Before use the mats are steeped 

 in a solution of copper sul- 

 phate not only to preserve 

 them, but also to prevent rats 

 and mice from gnawing them, 

 and to keep off fungoid diseases. 



FIG. 7. RYE-STRAW MAT. 



Each mat costs about is. 2d. 



to is. 6d., and with fair wear and tear ought to last 

 three or four seasons. 



The mats are useful not only for protecting the 

 plants in the frames or under the cloches from severe 

 frosts in winter, but in summer time they are almost 

 as much in evidence for shading the lights and cloches 

 from the scorching rays of the sun. Old mats are 

 useful for covering the cloches that are stacked up in 

 summer, to protect them against the sudden hail- 

 storms that often do much damage. Although the 

 rye-straw mats are reasonably cheap, it may be 

 worth while to make them in gardens when bad 

 weather prevents the employees from doing other work. 



