440 [AsSEMFCiT 



Next in order I sball speak of the proper covering for sashes.- 

 for the reason that this is generally provided during late \a inter^^ 

 as preparatory to the making of hot beds. Moss, hay, and refuse 

 material, are frequently, but injediciously made use of; for 

 during the removal and replacement of sucl substances, at times 

 necessary to give air and light to plant?, small portions, by acci- 

 dent fall upon them, which soon undergo decomposition, and the 

 plants being too tender to withstand the produced effect, very 

 often droop and die. 



Mats are doubtless much better as a covering to prevent the 

 effects of frost, than the materials already spoken of, for the ob- 

 jections in the one case are not applicable in the other, and ih& 

 best kind as w^ell as the most easy to construct, are those made 

 by almost every gardener. Two men accustomed to such workj. 

 can make during a day, from six to seven mats, six and one-half 

 feet long by five feet wide, and the mode of operation can readily 

 be understood. A coarse frame of the required size is procuredj- 

 and from four to live nails, according to the size of the mat 

 required, and at equidistant points from^ each other, are driven in 

 each of the end boards, about one and one-half or two inches from 

 the inner margin. The frame is then rested against a wall or 

 other convenient place, and a piece of strong twine is made fast 

 to the first nail, in order of tho^e at the top board, and is then 

 continued down to the opposite nail of the end board, and there 

 made fast; the twine is then continued upwards, and brought 

 down again without being secured, for the purpose of measuring 

 a length twice that of the mat intended to be made, and is then 

 rolled upon a short piece of stick with slit in the end, in which 

 the twine may be placed to prevent its unravelling, when it shall 

 have been wound up to within one and one-half feet or two feet 

 of the nail of the lower end board. A like arrangement of the 

 twine is made with the other nails in succession. Then one man^ 

 each side of the frame, takes a small quantity of straw in his hand 

 from a heap, necessarily near by, which had previously been 

 arranged evenly for such purpose, and places it over the nails of 

 the lower part of the frame, permitting the ends of the straw to* 

 project, say three or four inches beyond the side line. His com- 



