Box Plant Protector. 



Devices for Forcing, Forwarding, and Protecting. 137 



grooves, cover the space between the two boards, and a short 

 piece of board closes up each end. At intervals a " grip " is 

 placed over the boards to keep them together; when the plants 

 need attention the grip is removed and the board pressed 

 gently back, so as to release the glass. This contrivance may 

 be used for forwarding and protecting many other things 

 besides strawberries. 



In some gardens a small edition 

 of the above contrivance is used in 

 in the form of a box without top or 

 bottom, with a pane of glass slipped 

 into a groove at the top. This is 

 very useful for protecting separate 

 plants in the open ground, and has 

 uses somewhat similar to a cloche. 



Another method of affording protection to plants set out 



early is to throw out shallow 

 trenches, 9in. wide, running 

 from east to west. The soil 

 is banked up on each side 

 of the trench, the larger por- 

 tion being put on the north 

 side. Panes of glass, butting 

 together, rest upon the banks 

 of earth. 



Raised Beds with Slope to the South. When a garden is 

 so situated that there is an almost entire absence of sheltered 

 borders, and the natural formation of the ground is not con- 

 ducive to growing early crops in the open, the difficulty may 

 be overcome in the following manner : The ground should be 

 in good friable condition, having been well manured and dug 

 some time previously. Trenches, 18in. wide and 9in. deep, 

 running from east to west, are taken out at 4ft. Gin. from centre 

 to centre, leaving a bed 3ft. wide between each two trenches. 

 The soil from the trenches is laid on the beds, being banked up 

 9in. high on the north side and gradually sloped away to the 

 ordinary level on the south side, as shown in the illustration 

 on the next page. The north, east, and west sides of the plot 

 should be screened with a good close fence of brushwood, or 



Glass-covered Trench. 



