as a Cofveringjbr Hot-houses and Hot-beds. 415 



Shennan, of which I very much approve. Mr. Shennan is 

 certainly right in saying that they produce a great saving of 

 fuel, and afford a great security from accidents of different 

 kinds ; and I wish to add, that they afford also a veiy superior 

 degree of temperature over common bass mats, and also allow 

 the steam of moist hot-beds to pass easier off, "When, as 

 often happens in this country, a heavy fall of snow takes 

 place during the night, the bass mats are not so easy to get 

 cleaned and dried the next morning as the straw mats, be- 

 cause they retain the moisture, and get frozen and stiff by the 

 frost penetrating through them ; and the next evening they 

 cannot be put on again, without great risk of breaking the 

 glass. Straw or reed mats are also a great deal cheaper than 

 Russia mats. Were I to use Russia mats in my forcing de- 

 partment, I should require more than 1000 mats for about 

 400 lights, which I now cover with 400 straw mats. It is 

 evident, therefore, that the use of straw mats well deserves 

 the attention of market-gardeners. 



These mats may be made of rye or wheat straw, or of 

 reeds. All I use are made by my workmen in the winter 

 time, when the weather is too bad for working out of doors. 

 I enclose a rough sketch {^g. 83.) to show how they are 

 made. 



a 



■£ 



^ 

 (« 

 T 

 til 



An oblong square 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 [b b b b b b), of which I never use fewer 

 than six, as the strength of the mat depends chiefly on the 

 number of these cords. The cords I use are of tarred rope- 

 yarn; on these I lay the straw or reeds in handfuls, and bind 



