3(i AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



Stones abound in flower compost, or for the purpose of reducing 

 and mixing guano or other powerful manures. 



In the preparation of compost in general, it is much better 

 to mix and reduce the materials with the spade or shovel than 

 with the sieve, which takes out the small lumps that, to most 

 plants, are the very " tit-bits" upon which their roots fasten. 



For the piirpose of cleaning flower-seeds, &c., at least two 

 small sieves, of about a foot diameter, will be found useful ; 

 one should be No. 12, and the other No. 10, to which others, 

 coarser or finer, may be added, if desired. 



FLOWER-POTS. 



Flower-pots are designated by their capacity, as half pints 

 (a), pints (6), quarts (c), &c. 



Fig. 13. They are sometimes 



made too deep for their 

 diameter, or too tapering 

 toward the bottom. 



The proportion of their 

 diameter to their depth 

 should be at the top as one to one, an<l at the bottom as two to 

 three. 



These proportions are nearly represented in Fig. d. 

 They should never bo glazed or over-burned, by which jjlants 

 in them are injm-ed, probably from exclusion of air, but should 

 have the ordinary porous texture of sound brick, thi'ough which 

 air passes, and evaporation and absorption proceed naturally. 

 The drainage-holes in the bottom should range from a full 

 half-inch diameter in the " quarts" to a full quarter inch in 

 the very smallest size. In rooms or on fancy stands they are 

 [ilaced in saucers (as Fig. c), which catch the drainage, but 

 the water should not be allowed to remain in them. 



STRAW MATS. 



Straw mats (Fig. 14) are convenient and valuable tor frame 

 sashes, whether used for winter covering of jiit or cold bed, or 

 u]jon the green-house or spring hot bed. They are easily and 

 (|uickly made, even by a boy, and may lie rather wider and Ion- 



