1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



353 



this is the usual daily work. And a boy, as soon 

 as he can use a jack-knife, will find that he also 

 can render important service. First, he can make 

 straight, smooth rods — which may be stained some 

 dark color — to A\hich his mother will want to tie 

 her geranium branches, or petunias, or fuchsias. 

 When he has made himself perfect in these he can 

 tiy his hand at making trellises, or frames, for 

 calceolarias or heliotropes. If he cannot smoothly 

 cut a square, straight strip of wood, almost any 

 house-carpenter will give him such, which he has 

 thrown aside with his refuse trimmings. It should 

 be about an inch wide, and from two to three feet 

 long, according to the height the plant is expected 

 to attain. Bore in this a row of holes about an 

 inch and a half apart. Then get a long, slim cane 

 of rattan, — such as was once used in making bon- 

 nets, — or a wire, and draw it through the holes so 

 as to have loops of the cane or wire on each side of 

 the wood. Whittle the end of the wood to a point, 

 that it may enter the soil easily ; and then stain 

 the frame and it is finished. An older boy will be 

 proud to make his mother a flower-stand. Of 

 these she will need two, if not more ; one like that 

 mentioned in Chapter II, and another, on which to 

 place a camellia, a calla lily, or a rosebush when 

 in bloom. For this last, which is intended to ac- 

 commodate but one flower-pot, a very pretty plan 

 is the following : — Saw from a round log of wood 

 two smooth slices, about one inch thick, — they 

 should also be one foot in diameter. Then from a 

 slender pole — an inch and a half or two inches in 

 diameter — a piece about twenty-seven inches long. 

 These materials should be of the heaviest wood 

 you can get. Nail the centre of each circular 

 piece to an end of the piece sawed from the pole. 

 Get, then, smooth hoops from a flower barrel. Un- 

 clasp one and cut an end squarely and nail it with 

 small nails to the edge of one circular so that the 

 hoop shall curve inward, and be nailed to the cen- 

 tre of the pole, and then curve outward ; having cut 

 it just long enough to reach the other circular, to 

 which that last end must Ije nailed. Six strips, at 

 equal distances, should thus be nailed to the round 

 top and bottom ; and thus be cuiwed in and nailed 

 to the centre of the supporting pole. There should 

 then be a strip of the hoop nailed around the top 

 and bottom, to cover the ends of those strips, and 

 the form of the stand is made. 



It should be stained to look like black walnut. 

 For this, get red ochre and lamp-black, and mix 

 them with water — to which a little glue may be 

 added. Cover the stand thinly with this staining. 

 You can add to its beauty by laying along the 

 edge of the circulars, and upon the curving strips, 

 imitations of carved work. For this make putty 

 of whiting and oil, with which lamp-black and 

 red-ochre must be mixed, to give it the dark 

 bro-\vn color of the staining used. Work the putty 

 thoroughly, and let it be quite stiff. Now your 

 sisters can help you ; in fact, will want to do all 

 the rest till the stand is finished, for the putty 

 must be rolled out thin, like pie-cmst, and cut into 



shapes. Your mother will let you take a few ivy 

 or geranium leaves for patterns. These must be 

 laid upon the sheet of putty, and gently pressed 

 upon it, so that the veins and indented edge of the 

 leaf is plainly imprinted. Then, with a sharp 

 knife, cut out this impression, and you will have a 

 perfect copy of the leaf. Cut a number of them, 

 and then roll bits of putty, for stems, in long slen- 

 der rolls ; and place these upon the stand to repre- 

 sent the branches and stems of vines creeping 

 around it and up the strips of the centre ; make a 

 few coils of the smallest rolls, to imitate tendrils, 

 and intersperse them with the stems. Then bend 

 and cui-ve the leaves to look natural, and lay them 

 along tlie vine, occasionally putting among them 

 clusters of small balls of putty, in imitation of 

 berries. The sheet of putty from which the leaves 

 are cut should be twice as thick as if rolled for 

 pastry ; and when rolling it, in order to keep it 

 from clinging to the hands, or to the roller, a little 

 of the dry materials of which the putty is made 

 should be sprinkled upon it. When you have fin- 

 ished, set the stand in a cool, dry place till the 

 work is hardened. 



A shelf for the comer of a room, on which to 

 set a lai-ge plant, or a pot of ivy when you wish to 

 trail its branches over the walls,, can be made 

 from a three-cornered piece of board ; having a 

 boi'der of this imitation of carving arranged on 

 the edge of its longest side, and fastened up by 

 screwing the other two sides to cleats, which are 

 themselves screwed to the two walls. The small 

 bracket-shelves, that are cut in open figures of 

 scroll and leaf-work, from cigar-boxes and other 

 thin wood, answer very well for small light pots, 

 and have a very pretty effect when used for that 

 purpose. 



And here is another design for a stand to hold a 

 large pot. Take a piece of board fourteen inches 

 square ; upon this, nail another twelve inches square 

 and on this one ten inches square. These nail to 

 a stick of wood six inches in diameter and two 

 feet long, for its pedestal. On the top of this 

 wooden pillar nail a block — two inches thick — of 

 octagon shape ; or, two pieces of board, one upon 

 the other, of the same foim, and one foot in diam- 

 eter. Then from each side of this head-piece 

 should pass narrow strips — fence pickets are of the 

 right size, to the upper layer that forms the foot- 

 piece ; these give the structure the appearance of 

 an eight-sided column. You wish it to resemble 

 stone, so you must get — some day after it has 

 rained — the gi'cy and greenish lichens from rocks 

 and old fences ; these are easily scraped off when 

 they are damp. At the same time gather some red- 

 cup, and white coral, and star moss; as well as 

 the soft, green, velvet kinds ; and a few alder 

 cones, and acorns in their cups. These are to lie 

 upon the base of column. Then make a paste of 

 rye-meal and glue water. Boil it well, and when 

 it is cool spread a coating of it upon the wood, and 

 arrange your lichens according to your taste ; and 

 in the same way, the mosses and other little things. 



