On Straw Mats for covering Hot-houses. 167 



the Blackwood schools there are now daily instructed one hun- 

 dred and forty-five scholars, with a prospect of great and speedy 

 increase of numbers, as (much to the credit of both parties) the 

 coal-masters of the neighbourhood and their workmen have 

 agreed upon a plan for appropriating a small poundage out of 

 the earnings of the latter, by which ample remuneration will be 

 insured to the teachers. Reading, writing, and the first rules 

 of arithmetic are taught in these schools, to which is to be 

 added a class for learning mensuration and surveying, as 

 applicable particularly to colliery-work ; and the girls are to 

 be taught to work with the needle, by the wives of the school- 

 masters. I am, Sir, yours, truly, 



John H. Moggridge„ 

 Woodfield, Monmouthshire, Sept. 7. 1827. 



Art. XVIII. On the Construction and Use of Strata Mats 

 for covering Hot-houses, and as a Substitute for Russian Mats 

 in covering Frames and Pits. By Mr. William John- 

 ston Shennan, Gardener at Gunnersbury House, Middle- 



sex. 



Mats of straw and of reeds, it is understood, have long 

 been in use in Holland and France for covering the glass 

 roofs of hot-houses, pits, and frames. I have also seen them 

 used for the same purpose, though but to a limited extent, in 

 Scotland, and by a few gardeners in different parts of Eng- 

 land. I believe they have been for a long time more or less 

 applied in this way, and as sheltering screens. My attention 

 some years ago was particularly directed to them, from ob- 

 serving the important purposes which they served in the 

 garden of General Dumourier in this neighbourhood, under 

 the direction of a French gardener ; and my object, in this 

 communication to the Gardener's Magazine, is to direct the 

 attention of my brethren to a covering which I consider 

 superior to all others for pits and frames, and by which I have 

 proved to my own and my employer's satisfaction that a great 

 saving of fuel may be made, and a superior degree of safety from, 

 accidents attained. 



The construction of straw mats is perhaps more easily per- 

 formed than described. The materials of which they are 

 composed are drawn rye straw or reeds fit for thatching, 

 stout packing cord, and laths or slips of wood about an inch 

 and a half broad and three fourths of an inch thick, and, in 



m 4 



