BOOK III. ARTICLES OF MANUFACTURE. 297 



or inner bark of trees, and generally of the lime. They are manufactured in the inland 

 parts of Russia and Sweden, and even in some parts of Monmouthshire, of different 

 sizes. They are used in gardening for a great variety of purposes ; for protecting wall-trees, 

 by being hung before them, and removed in mild weather ; for protecting espaliers and 

 standards, by being thrown over them ; for protecting more delicate shrubs, by being 

 thrown over an envelope of hay or straw, in which way most American trees and standard- 

 roses are protected in the neighbourhood of Petersburg!! ; for protecting tender 'plants 

 coining through the ground, by being spread on its surface, and such as are of a larger size, 

 by being supported on hooped framing. They are used to cover hot-beds, hot-houses, 

 hand-glasses, and every sort of glass case ; to shelter plants from wind, shade them from 

 the sun, &c. 



1507. Prepared coverings are double mats with a layer of hay or straw within, like 

 mattresses ; they are used for covering hot-beds in mid-winter, but are readily rendered 

 injurious by heavy rains. A mode which would produce the same effect, is to use three 

 thicknesses of mats, keeping them apart by small frames of lath or hollow rollers ; the 

 object being to preserve vacuities or strata of air between the glass and first mat, 

 between the first and second mat, and between the second and third mat, which, if 

 attended to, would resist any external cold whatever without cumbrous loads of hay, 

 straw, &c. (See Dr. Wells on Dew, and Remarks on Hot-houses, &c.) 



1508. Straw coverings are formed of straight long wheat or rye straw, tied in handfuls 

 in the middle, so as each handful may be nearly of the length of two straws, and the hand- 

 fuls are connected together by packthread. They are thus formed into rolls, and were for- 

 merly much used, especially in the culture of early salading, and in covering glass cases. 

 Melons were formerly protected by nothing more than loose wheat-straw, and this mode 

 by rolls seems merely a more economical and neat mode of practice. Loose wheat-straw 

 is used by the market-gardeners, to protect early crops of radishes and other saladings. 



1509. Reed coverings are formed exactly like those of straw, and are used chiefly for 

 protecting glass, or forming protecting cones round tender shrubs, or bee-hives of the 

 common kind. 



SUBSECT. 2. Articles of Manufacture. 



1510. The manufactured articles used in gardening are chiefly canvass, gauze, netting, 

 mats, and nails. 



1511. Canvass, either plain, oiled, tanned, or painted, is used for protecting the blossoms 

 of wall-trees ; excluding cold from plants or plant-structures, shading or sheltering 

 plants, and for keeping off rain. 



1512. Coarse gauze and netting, such as is used by fishers and bird-catchers, may be 

 prepared similarly to canvass, and used for the same purposes as that article, excepting 

 excluding rain. Oiling or tanning is best adapted for gauze ; as painting or tarring 

 destroys its property of transmitting light. 



1513. A netting of straw ropes has been found efficacious in protecting trees from frost, either thrown 

 over an entire standard-tree, or hung before fruit- walls. They are used at Dalkeith gardens, near Edin- 

 burgh, and were formerly much resorted to in the Netherlands. 



1514. Wall-tree nails are of several sorts, but the principal are, the small 

 cast-iron nail, in most common use with lists ; the flat-headed wrought-iron 

 nail, used either with lists, loops of cord, or mat ; and the eyed cast-iron 

 nail (^g.,221.), used with small pieces of spray, dried willow-twigs, or 

 mat-ties, as in trellis-training. Its chief advantage is the not being so liable 

 to lodge the larvae of insects as the nails which are used with lists ; and being 

 once driven, they never require removal, or occasion the injury of the wall, 

 as the branches may be loosened, or altered, by merely taking out the slips 

 of spray, or cutting the mat-ties. (Caled. Mem. vol. iii.) 



1515. Wall-tree lists are marginal ends or shreds of broad cloth cut 

 into lengths of from two and a half to four inches, and from one half to 



one inch in breadth, according to the size of the shoots, &c. Their grand disadvantage 

 is the harboring of insects, for which some have substituted shreds of leather with ad- 

 vantage, and others recommend steeping the shreds in a mixture of sulphur and soap- 

 suds, or better in that of corrosive sublimate, recommended for preserving specimens of 

 plants. (581.) The colors of black, scaflet, and reddis'h-brown are the best for lists, as 

 contrasting well with vegetation. 



SUBSECT. 3. Articles of Preparation. 



1516. The prepared materials used in gardening are numerous : we shall merely enu- 

 merate props, ties, covering materials, gravel, sand, cinders, lime and straw. 



1517. Props for plants are of two kinds, rods or poles, and spray. 



Rods vary from six inches to six feet or upwards in length, tapering to a point, and thick in proportion. 

 For small plants in pots, and for delicate bulbous roots, as hyacinths, small splinters of lath, dressed with a 

 Knife or small plane, are the best ; and for hyacinths and florists' flowers in general, they should be painted 

 green ; for botanical plants, however, this may, in some cases, appear too formal For hardy plants and 

 climbing shrubs, young shoots or poles of hazel or ash from copse- woods are the most suitable j they should 



