COLD FRAMES. 



114 



COLD FRAMES. 



broccoli, and to the cabbage tribe gener- 

 ally, especially on poor land and under 

 indifferent culture, may be prevented, in 

 some degree, by dipping the roots, before 

 planting, in a thick mixture, composed of 

 J peck of soot and I Ib. of saltpetre, with 

 water added to make it the consistency of 

 paste. A more certain remedy, however, 

 is found in a proper system of cropping 

 and manuring, by which this exhausting 

 vegetable is made to follow, in rotation, 

 crops which act as deepeners and restorers 

 of the qualities withdrawn by previous 

 crops of Brassicae. 



The effects of the club become apparent 

 in hot sunny days : cabbages, &c., hang 

 down and turn blue, and often become 

 infested with aphis. This disease is, per- 

 haps, the most vexatious with which the 

 gardener has to deal. How far it may be 

 prevented by the use of wood ashes, &c., is 

 a matter of doubt. The most prominent 

 causes of clubbing seem to be : firstly, an 

 injudicious application of manure in small 

 gardens that are already too manured the 

 most prevalent cause ; and, secondly, the 

 exhausted state of the soil, arising from the 

 too unvaried use to which it is put ; either 

 of these circumstances tending to foster the 

 insect to whose work the clubbing itself is 

 certainly due. The plants that are subject 

 to the disease are strong feeders, and ex- 

 haust the soil very much ; but it is reason- 

 able to suppose they leave food suitable for 

 other plants. Instances have been known 

 of ground being left to weeds for several 

 years, when, although cabbages clubbed 

 badly before, they did not after the rest 

 from cultivation that it had experienced ; 

 the ground showing a fertility that would 

 justify any one in believing that weeds have 

 a wonderful faculty for restoring ground 

 that had been exhausted by kitchen crops. 



Cold Frames, Mats for. 



Straw mats for covering frames and 



minor glass structures in frosty weather, 

 and for shading them in the heat of 

 summer, are easily made, and may afford 

 profitable employment in the winter 

 season at the time when nothing can be 

 done in the open ground. The proper 

 kind of straw for making mats of this 

 description is wheat straw or "reed," as 

 it is called in Devonshire, and which is 

 always combed to clear it of the withered 

 leaves that adhere to it. Enough to make 

 a small bundle of about I in. or i in. 

 in diameter is grasped in the hand, and 

 some tarred twine is brought round in three 

 places, or more, if thought desirable, as 

 shown in the accompanying illustration 



V 



MAT FOR COLD FRAMES. 



Successive bundles of straw are added until 

 the required size is obtained, the strings 

 which are under in one layer being brought 

 over for the next layer. When the last 

 layer or bundle has been added, the strings 

 are securely tied and the ends cut off. In 

 making a mat for a frame 6 ft. in measure- 

 ment from top to bottom, it will be found 

 necessary to make each layer of two portions 

 of straw, having the ends turned outward 

 and the heads brought together in the 

 middle, but when a narrow mat is made, 

 the ends of the bundles should be disposed 

 on one side in one layer and on the opposite 

 side in the layer next to it. It is better also 

 to make the mat so that the straw may be 

 arranged longitudinally from the top to the 

 bottom of the light, and not transversely, 

 as in this position the rain that may fall on 



