AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



35 



Fig. 11. 



Bell-glass. 

 Hand Glasses. A, square ; 13, octagon. 



lator (e, c) is sometimes made in the top, which, with a slight 

 tilting of the lower edge, permits of airing the plants without 

 uncovering them. They are used for covering newly- sown and 

 delicate seeds, and newly-made cuttings, to prevent too rapid 

 evaporation, or for protecting tender hilled crops, as early mel- 

 ons, cucumbers, egg-plants, &c. 



Their general purposes, particularly for hilled crops, may be 

 answered by an oblong or square wooden box, with a slight 

 pitch to its upper end, over or into which a single large pane of 

 glass is made to slide in small side grooves, so that it may be 

 opened at pleasure, forming, in fact, a miniature garden-frame. 



Bell-glasses, Fig. 11, are used for the same general purposes 

 as small hand-glasses, viz., to hasten and secure the vegetation 

 of seeds of special character, and, in case of certain cuttings 

 which do not root readily, to prevent exhaustion before they 

 become prepared to obtain new supplies. They are not glazed, 

 but blown, and sometimes need^watching and shading, lest their 

 concave surface become a burning-glass to the young plants 

 they cover. 



SIEVES. 



Sieves are distin- 

 guished by the number 

 of meshes woven to the 

 inch. 



The opposite figures 

 represent Numbers 1 

 and 2, or inch and half-inch mesh, which are the only sizes 

 needed in the garden or green-house ; and even these may be 

 well dispensed with, unless in extraordinary cases, as where 



A, i inch mesh sieve ; B, 1 inch mesh sieve. 



