254 
THE PLANTING SEASON. 
screens, made of some light, oiled fabric, secured, as we have hinted, by fillets and 
small bolts, the heat would be supported by night far more effectually than by 
the wretched appliance of garden mats, which require nailing and boarding, at the 
imminent risk of damage to the glasses, and disfigurement to the woodwork. 
Mats may do pretty well in the front, but even there sliding-screens are in every 
way preferable, and are fitted up at lighter cost in the long-run. 
Mats require renewal every season, and many pounds are expended yearly 
upon them in large establishments : they, moreover, admit of no congenial light by 
day, the colour they impart being a dingy buff, inimical to vegetation ; whereas, 
by screens, the white light is diffused, softened, but not changed in its character 
or agency. 
Some persons would object to screens, on the ground of decay, occasioned by 
advertised fluids. We believe that common, pale, linseed oil, laid evenly upon 
canvass or linen, would preserve the fabric for three seasons, and cost a mere 
trifle ; at all events, the principle now advocated is sound, and requires only the 
sanction of practice. 
It will be evident from all that is above stated, that our plan refers only to 
forcing-houses. Many, however, of the choicest plants require no artificial heat ; 
and for such, low-built brick pits are the most effectual. These should be deeply 
excavated, so as to admit a plant three feet high at the back. The ground on 
which pits are erected should always be perfectly drained, otherwise (as we once 
saw) water may rise during a wet winter, flood, and destroy everything. Dry 
sawdust is a capital plunging material in such pits, as it prevents the freezing of 
the soil ; and for coverings, correctly made straw mats are exceedingly trustworthy : 
being an inch and a half thick, frost can find no entrance, particularly if they are 
kept dry by a few deal boards. 
THE PLANTING SEASON. 
In forming plantations, or decorating a new garden with shrubs and trees, or 
supplying vacancies in the shrubberies of a pleasure ground, or making any 
alterations in gardens already planted, or in shifting particular specimens to a more 
suitable or desirable position, nothing can be more important than for the operator 
clearly to understand the principles on which success will be dependent, the periods 
best adapted for the removal, and the various little niceties required in the execu- 
tion of the process. Everybody who has a garden, also, being to a greater or less 
extent a planter, it may be assumed that there is a kind of universal demand for 
information which shall both facilitate the proceeding and render it in some 
degree certain. 
To supply a variety of hints, therefore, which shall be tangible to all, and 
