DESCRIPTION OF A DAHLIA STAND. 
729 
There is some nicety required in thinning and arranging the 
crop ; when the fruit is about the size of green gage plums, it is the 
proper time to thin them ; two fruits should never be left together, 
for they would neither be fine nor well formed ; the quantity left to 
ripen, must also depend on the age and strength of the tree. The 
thinnings have no pulp when of the size above mentioned, and are 
much esteemed by the confectioner for making excellent preserves. 
R. Ayres. 
March 2nd, 1832. 
ARTICLE VI. 
DESCRIPTION OF A DAHLIA STAND, WITH A TABLE SHEWING 
THE PROBABLE EXPENSES OF ONE MADE TO 
ANY SIZE.— By Mr. Saul. 
Herewith I send you a design for a Dahlia Stand, to be made of 
cast-iron, (Fig. 119,) which may be obtained at a trifling expense, 
as it requires no labour in making after the uprights are cast. It 
merely consists of three half-inch up- , jq 
rights, each of which have three small 
hooks (a) to support the hoops when 
set as (b.) If the diameter of the 
hoops, were twelve inches the top 
one, eight the middle one, and five 
inches the lower one, it would require 
to make them about seven feet of 
quarter-inch iron, this by a refer- 
ence to the table will be found to 
vv'eigh about one pound, fourteen parts 
of a pound, and may be bought at 
three half-pence per pound. Supposing one of the uprights (c) to 
be five feet long and a half-inch thick, each stand being formed of 
three uprights, would make fifteen feet long of half-inch iron, by 
again referring to the table, it will be found to weigh nine pounds 
and eighty-one parts, which would cost about one shilling and 
two-pence. Then for instance, supposing the hoops measured 
in diameter eighteen inches, twelve inches, and nine inches, 
these hoops would require about eleven feet long of a quarter-inch 
size, which would weigh about one pound seventy -nine parts, and 
would cost about two-pence half-penny. A stand this size therefore 
