212 GARDENING FOR PLEASURE. 



cate plant, and yet not deprive it of air. Six-inch boards 

 of half-inch stuff nailed together to form a V shaped 

 trough are very useful in the garden. They are handy 

 to place over small plants during cold nights, and may 

 be turned over and set to make a screen against strong 

 winds, or used for shading plants in rows. 



Seedlings often suffer from the heat of the sun in the 

 middle of the day; the seedlings of even the hardiest forest 

 trees are very delicate when young. The seeds of such trees 

 when sown naturally almost always fall where the young 

 plant will be shaded, and the amateur who experiments 

 in this very interesting branch of horticulture, the rais- 

 ing of evergreen and deciduous trees and shrubs from 

 seed, will find it necessary to imitate Nature, and protect 

 his young seedlings from the intense heat of the sun. 

 There are several ways of doing this. If the seeds have 

 been sown in an open border, let him take twigs about a 

 foot long, evergreen if they can be had, but, if not, those 

 from any deciduous tree, and stick them a few inches 

 apart all over the bed. This will give the seedlings very 

 much such a protection as they would naturally have had 

 in the shade of other plants ; and though evergreens will 

 look better for a while, the dead leaves of deciduous 

 twigs will give quite as useful a shade, 



It is always safer to sow seeds in a frame, as the young 

 plants are then under more complete control. Frames 

 are easily shaded by means of a lattice made of common 

 laths. Strips of inch stuff, an inch and a half or two 

 inches wide, are used for the sides of the lattice, and 

 laths are nailed across as far apart as their own width. 

 One lath being nailed on, another is laid down to mark 

 the distance, the third one put down and nailed, and the 

 second lath is moved along to mark the distance for the 

 fourth, and so on. With a screen of this kind there is 

 abundant light, but the sun does not shine long at a 

 time on one spot, and the plants have a constantly chang- 



