37G 
THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
and on a hot summer’s day, if you sit for half an hour leaniug 
against a surface treated therewith, you may find it a difficult task 
to get away home again — you will be glued down like a limpet, and 
■when pulled off by strong friendly hands, will surely find that you 
have left a photograph of the event in the form of a film of wood or 
what else on the treacherous varnish. Yet one word more. All 
receptacles for earth, such as baskets, etc., should be pierced to 
allow escape of surplus water, and should be coated with pitch inside. 
So too the feet of all chairs, baskets, and so forth, should be touched 
with hot pitch sufficient to make the sole impervious to moisture, 
and when these are placed in positions they should stand on bricks 
or tiles, rammed into the proper places previously. By taking 
these precautions the life of your rustic work will be considerably 
prolonged. 
Wire work should of all things be strong, and suited to the par- 
ticular purpose for which it is employed. Very much of the low- 
priced wire netting we see advertised is worse than useless, for being 
frail and subject to decay and damage, we may some day lose all our 
pheasants or other valuable birds that have been entrusted to its 
keeping. 
In selecting wire netting for any particular purpose, it is a good 
plan to have the largest mesh allowable, and to have the strongest 
work made of that size. Generally speaking, iron rods are preferable 
for the frame-work of an aviary to any kind of woodwork, but the 
latter must be used more or less, and it is specially serviceable where 
anything like ornament is attempted. Galvanized wire has its uses, 
and is certainly not to be condemned ; but the caution may be 
useful that the best of it will not last for ever. What is it? No- 
thing more than iron coated with zinc ; and consequently, wherever 
the iron is exposed to the atmosphere, as it must be in places where 
the wire has been cut, there oxidation takes place, and decay pro- 
ceeds at a rapid rate. Some of the better productions are galvanized 
after all the work of cutting and forming is complete, in order to 
give a coating of zinc to the joinings and rivets. But this is of 
course impossible with works of any great extent, and those who 
would build well are advised to finish the work with two or three 
coats of paint, which should be renewed every third year. 
Wire netting is frequently employed to confine poultry and 
ornamental fowls in narrow runs which scarcely deserve the name of 
aviaries, though in strict truth they are such. In constructing 
these, fiat roofs should never be adopted, nor, indeed, should a flat 
roof in wire-work be employed for any purpose in the open air. One 
heavy fall of snow, remaining a few hours on a flat wire roof, how- 
ever* strong, will be likely to weigh it down and drag the uprights 
with it out of gear, and may even bring down the whole affair with 
a crash, to the destruction, perhaps, of all the inmates. 
Wire baskets, and even wire flower-pots, in endless variety 
of design, are offered by the manufacturers of garden oruaments, 
and, generally speaking, they are good. But strength is of the 
utmost importance, especially if they are intended to be filled with 
earth and planted. Into such baskets we should prefer never to put 
