190 



THE GARDENER'S ASSISTANT. 



then tapering to the place where the nozzle is 

 fixed on the wood. The upper board is cut 

 across, the leather covering over the cut form- 

 ing the hinge for allowing the board to move 

 up and down. On the upper side of the tube 

 is a circular tin box, 3 inches in diameter and 

 2J inches deep, for holding sulphur, which, on 

 being introduced, and the lid fitted on, passes 

 through holes in the bottom of the box and 

 upper side of the tube, from the interior of 

 which it is expelled by the action of the 

 bellows. On the under side will be observed 

 a thin spring strap, bearing at its farther 

 extremity a piece of iron which strikes 

 against the tin tube as the bellows is worked, 

 and shakes the sulphur into the tube when it 

 would otherwise not pass through the holes. 

 The boards are made of thin 

 hard wood about —inch thick. 

 The leather is also very thin and 

 exceedingly pliable, and to this 

 must be ascribed the superiority 

 in extent of blast which this 

 small apparatus possesses over 

 those of larger dimensions but 

 with thicker leather. The above 

 is a cheap, convenient, and easily 

 worked apparatus. The Powder 

 Distributor, a rubber bag with a 

 perforated nozzle (fig. 239), is a 

 very useful distributor for sul- 

 phur or tobacco powder, to use with one hand, I 

 manipulating the foliage or plant with the 

 other. 



Syringes are indispensable where there are ; 

 glass structures for plants and forcing; and in 

 small gardens they may be substituted to some 

 extent for the garden engine, as regards fruit- 

 trees. There are many kinds, that shown in 

 fig. 240 being a great improvement on the old 



Fipr. 239. 

 Powder Distributor. 



Fig. 242.— Triplex Rose. 



Fig. 240. 



Fig. 241. 



form ; for, however fine may be the rose used, the 

 water can be readily drawn up. This is owing 

 to the water being chiefly admitted through a 

 nozzle, in the neck of which a ball-valve is caged. 



When the piston is drawn up, the ball is raised 

 sufficiently to admit plenty of water; and when 

 the piston is pressed down, the ball is driven 



forward and closes 

 the nozzle, so that 

 the water can only 

 pass out through 

 the perforations of 

 the rose. The 

 syringe is furnished 

 with two roses of 

 different degrees 

 of fineness, and a 

 single tube when it 

 is requisite to force 

 out the water in one 

 unbroken stream. 

 These syringes are 

 now fitted with a 

 Patent Water-tight 

 Plunger, or Piston 

 (fig. 241). The 

 plunger has a strong 

 india-rubber base, with an outer case of felt (a) ; 

 the rubber ensures the elasticity necessary to 

 produce constant, sound working; the felt re- 

 tains the oil, ensures smoothness, and prevents 

 corrosion of the rubber with the metal. The 

 plunger can be compressed or loosened as re- 

 quired, being controlled by a thumb-screw (b). 

 An improved "rose", attached to what is called 

 White's Patent Triplex Syringe, is an ingenious 

 arrangement of ball and nozzle which emits 

 either a fine or coarse spray, or an unbroken 

 stream, by slightly altering the position in which 

 the syringe is held (see fig. 242). This rose has 

 also been adapted for use upon a hose director. 

 In using syringes, great care should be taken not 

 to indent their sides through rough handling, 

 as a single indentation renders the cylinder no 

 longer a true one, and then 

 the piston cannot fit accu- 

 rately. In every house 

 Avhere a syringe is required, 

 two curved hooks should 

 be fixed up in a convenient 

 position to lay it on when 

 not in use. 



V. Utensils. 



Pots. — These are generally 

 made of clay, a certain quan- 

 tity of which is called a cast of from one to 

 eighty pots, according to their size. The dimen- 

 sions of the pots made in London and its 

 vicinity are as follows: — 



