196 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



January, 1916 



the cloches was shocking. However, just 

 as I had resolved to indulge in a few and 

 "hang the expense," the war broke out and 

 the factories in the north of France where 

 practically all of the cloches were made, 

 were destroyed. Then began the hunt for 

 something to take their place. I went to a 

 great many wholesale glass-houses, to com- 

 mission houses, and to department stores. 

 Glass of the cheapest kind seems dear when 

 it comes to anything that could be used 

 for such a purpose. The nearest thing to 

 the shape were "cake-covers"; glasses with 

 a knob on top such as are used to cover 

 cheese. They came high; even wholesale 

 were about a dollar and ten cents apiece. 

 Finally some were procurred from a fac- 

 tory in West Virginia and hills of corn were 

 planted, far earlier than one would dare to 

 plant if the young blades were to be left 

 to the tender mercies of the raw spring 

 winds. Rather hot manure was put under 

 the hills to warm the ground so that the 

 seed would surely germinate. When it 

 seemed as if the sun might be too strong 

 through the glass, covers of cheese-cloth 

 were made and put over the "cloches." 

 This we found very satisfactory. That 

 corn was well ahead of the other very early 

 corn and this year we are going to have it 

 even earlier. (All gardeners have these 

 hopes!) These cloches were successfully 

 used for lettuce, and, as they are eighteen 



With coldframes (or hotbeds) as seen in the background to start seeds 

 etc. and the portable wire frame cloches to shelter plants set out we 

 get a really early garden. Double glass sash hold more heat in frames 



inches in diameter, it can readily be seen 

 that the heads could grow quite large be- 

 fore the covers need be removed. 



We also experimented with "battery jars" 

 obtained from a druggist. They were a 

 little small. However, they were excellent 

 for covering young dahlias and tender 

 plants during the cool nights of early spring, 

 and were also used with fair results over 

 lettuce. These came in cases holding two 

 dozen jars which are eight inches high and 

 six in diameter and as they are made of 

 green glass, no cheesecloth covers were 

 needed. Both these forms of "cloches" 

 have no ventilation unless they are tipped 

 up or removed and a good deal of care must 

 be used not to let the hot sun scald the 

 plants. The sun draws up moisture on to 

 the inside of the glass which drips back 

 upon the lettuce underneath and which 



does no harm so long 

 as the plants do not 

 touch the glass. 

 When that happens, 

 ugly brown marks 

 spoil the leaves. I 

 removed my cloches 

 for a short time in 

 the middle of each 

 warm day. 



The third variety 

 of cloche used was 

 the tent-shaped kind 

 and which I saw 

 first at the Flower 

 Show in Grand Cen- 

 tral Palace last 

 March. I had mis- 

 givings about this 

 kind for I saw the 

 open slit at the top 

 between the two 

 panes of glass. The 

 fact that they could 

 so easily be taken 

 apart and stored appealed to me and I de- 

 cided to give them a trial. They were 

 really wonderful, and, because of that 

 magic open space at the top, hardly had to 

 be removed at all. They kept splendidly 

 warm at night, why I don't know, and the 

 lettuce grown under them matured quicker 

 and was finer than any we had. 



Another article few people bother 

 with is cheese-cloth. I have be- 

 come so devoted to cheese-cloth 

 that I feel as if very little could be 

 grown without its help at some 

 time. Some years ago we had slat 

 screens made of thin lathing to 

 shade our frames from strong sun- 

 light and found them very useful 

 and we still use them for larger 

 plants after transplanting to the 

 frames. Having spent a good deal 

 of my time spreading widths of 

 cheese-cloth over the glass of the 

 sashes to shade the young seed- 

 lings, and more time unrolling it 

 after the wind and rain had de- 

 ranged it, I conceived the idea of 

 having it properly stretched on a 

 lath frame the size of our sashes, 

 and, while we were about it, had 

 enough made to cover all our 

 frames and eighteen extra! 



These lath frames were seventy- 

 eight inches long by thirty-six wide 

 and were made of trimmed spruce 

 lath, one and a half by a quarter 

 inches, reinforced by diagonals of 

 one and a quarter by a quarter 

 lath, and fastened together with 

 small wire brads. These screens, 

 together with the tents we made 

 later, have been the joy of my life. 

 Somehow it is not a bit hard to 

 see that seeds are properly shaded 

 when there is something so easily 

 handled and so neat and profes- 

 sional looking to do it with ! Small 

 ones were made for the midget 

 frames in which a crop of very 



Cake covers were the nearest approach to the bell-glass 

 but are not so good because of the flat unventilated top 



early and fine cu- 

 cumbers were 

 started. The midget 

 frames can be raised 

 after a while to the 

 surface of the ground 

 and later completely 

 removed. 



To go back to our 

 cheese-cloth; our 

 screens worked won- 

 ders when we trans- 

 planted tomatoes, 

 peppers and egg- 

 plants. For the to- 

 matoes we made a 

 regular enclosure 

 with them so that 

 the wind could not 

 harm the young 

 plants. The screens 

 were simply leaned 

 against the trellis 

 and kept in place 

 with some plant- 

 stakes which were firmly driven into the 

 soft ground. After the plants got a good 

 start the screens were taken away. 



For shading rows of transplanted lettuce, 

 egg-plants, peppers, etc., we used another 

 small invention of my own. We made lath 

 frames four feet long and two feet wide in 

 the manner of the larger ones, covering them 

 in the same way; then we took heavy wire 

 and put two together with the long sides 

 joined to form a tent-shaped affair which 

 would fold up perfectly flat. Nothing could 

 be handier than these; they can be carried 

 about easily, are opened and stood over 

 plants in a moment, and are far better than 

 the old method of shading with newspapers 

 that we used to rely upon, and they are 

 "perfectly good" for another year at least, 

 maybe several more! All the screens are 

 so light in weight, a number of them can 

 be carried at one time and, as I said before, 

 they are easily stored. Yes, cheese-cloth 

 comes in very handy with us to protect the 

 sweet-peas from cold, rough winds, for 

 straining spray mixtures and for shading 

 purposes. The difference between the 

 quality and growth of shaded and un- 

 shaded plants is very perceptible. 



Midget frames are splendid boosters to start tender plants such as 

 melons; the whole structure can be removed later 



