I 
84 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 4. 
POULTRY NETTING. 
In bygone years, “when George the Third was 
king,” I was an expert maker of nets of various 
kinds for the capture of the different wild animals 
that fall in the way of a youthful naturalist; and 
although the rapidity of manufacture on which, 
as a boy, I once prided myself, has long since 
j disappeared, I still remember perfectly the dif- 
I ferent contrivances and ingenious inodes of con- 
i struclion which I gleaned from various hunters 
( and fishers of the deep; and not unfrequently 
do I find that the ability to make a small piece 
j of netting, either to fill up some vacancy in a poultry 
j run, raise the height of a fence to enclose some 
■ coop, or secure some window, &c., is of much 
i service, inasmuch as a few minutes will suffice 
i to supply me with what could not be obtained 
| from the wire worker under several days. 
The kind of netting which is most useful in a 
poultry yard is that termed the square-meslied, which, when 
stretched out, is of a fixed and definite size and form, and 
cannot be elongated and rendered narrow by pulling. As the 
mode of making this is not generally known, and as some 
of my specimens have attracted attention from their evi 
dent superiority over the diamond pattern, I am induced to [ 
forward a description of the process, as promised many 
months since. 
Into the mode of using the needle and spool, and making 
the knot, I will not. at present enter, as it is precisely similar 
in both the square and diamond pattern, and five minutes’ 
instruction from any person who can net will give greater 
facilities for the performance than as many hours’ practice 
without. 
1’re-supposing, then, that the ability to net in the common 
manner exists, |and that it is desired to make a piece of 
square-meshed netting of a square form, to close a window, 
or a long strip to raise a fence a foot or more in height, the 
following plan must be adopted: First, net one loop, which 
by itself constitutes the first row; draw out the spool and 
net two loops, by taking up the first loop twice; these con¬ 
stitute the second row; again draw out the spool, and make 
the third row of three loops, the additional loop being 
gained by taking up the last loop of each row twice; thus 
proceed, always adding a loop at the end of each row, by 
netting two loops into one until the two borders are as long 
as the sides of the square are required to be. 
On opening out the net it will now be observed that a half 
square has been formed, the first loop constituting one 
corner, the two borders the sides, and the last finished row 
the diagonal. Now net one row without increasing a loop at 
the end, and then proceed to net the other half of the 
square, by diminishing a loop in each row; this is done by 
reversing the former proceeding, namely, by taking up the 
j last two loops at the end of each row at one time, until the 
last row is diminished to a single loop ; on stretching out a 
net so formed it will be found a perfect square, with square 
meshes, and bordered all round with a doubly strong selvage, i 
and possessing the great advantage of being fixed in size 
instead of varying in shape, with the degree of force em¬ 
ployed to extend it as the diamond pattern does. 
On referring to a very scarce book by the Hon. and Lev. 
Charles Bathurst, entitled “ Notes on Nets,” I find so good a 
description of the mode of making square-meshed nets longer \ 
than wide, that I am induced to give the note in the words of j 
the learned author in preference to my own. He states,— 
“ But suppose you want your net to be longer than it is 
wide, and yet the meshes composing it to be square : this is 
effected nearly in the same way as in the complete square. 
From half a square, as before, the length of one side (a, b) I 
of which will determine the width of the oblong to be made ; 1 
when this is done narrow on one side and increase on the 
other; that is, at the end of every alternate row you take 
two loops up at once, whilst at the end of the other rows you 
net two loops in one. 
“ When your oblong is of the required length, which is 
ascertained by measuring the long side of the netting from 
a to d, from the corner at n to the last loop at </, finish off 
as you did in the case of the complete square, namely, by 
taking up two loops at once at the end of each row. 
“ In the oblong net you need not make a row of plain 
loops before you begin finishing off, as was done in the 
square net. 
“ It is necessary to bear in mind that whether you add or 
diminish it must always be done at the end of the row ; and 
it is as well to make the side on which you are to increase 
in oblong netting, lest you fall into a mistake and increase 
or diminish on the wrong side or irregularly. 
“Many nets are made up into a confused mass, ‘ or made 
pie of,’ as a printer would say, by not attending to these 
points. 
“ Oblong or square nets worked as now directed will, 
when first completed, appear in the shape of a lozenge; 
but by stretching out the sides at right angles to each other 
the nets will assume the proper shape. 
“ It makes the angles cleaner if in making the last single 
loop, e, the spool he withdrawn before the needle is drawn 
(taught), the last loop is thus absorbed instead of remaining 
to spoil the appearance of the net. 
“ The single loop with which the net was begun (a) may 
also be untied to enable the better to draw it up taught, and 
make it vanish as he did the last one. (In the engraving 
these loops are shown thus drawn up.) 
“ Many netters consider it a great saving of time and 
twine to make their oblong nets with square-shaped meshes.” 
This last remark of the rev. author is unquestionably 
true, for as every mesh hangs its full size, which is not the 
case in the diamond pattern, there is necessarily a great 
saving of material, labour, and weight. 
The only disadvantage attending square netting is, that 
after having been once made it cannot readily be altered in 
size, either by addition or subtraction; this, however, is a 
minor point, as it is usually made to some required size, and 
does not necessitate subsequent alteration. 
I will at some future time forward an account of a simpler 
mode of making the knot than the plan commonly followed, 
by which nearly three times the ordinary speed can be 
attained, and which I have never seen described in books, 
having learned it from an Irish fisherman, who had practiced 
it for many years, and who assured me it was the general 
plan in his native locality. 
The applicability of these square-meslied nets to garden 
purposes I must leave to be determined by my more ex¬ 
perienced colleagues; but the circumstances of their not 
requiring any cord to bind or strain them, and their sides 
hanging perpendicularly under the fronts of support, seem 
to offer advantages over the diamond pattern.—AY. B. Teget- 
sieiee, IVilksdcn. 
HARDY BORDER PLANTS. 
THE NATURAL ORDER FUMEWORTS. 
The whole of this order of plants are more or less 
strikingly beautiful. If'wc look at the Dielytra spectabUis, 
we may .justly say this is the king of them, nor does it 
lessen its claim to the title that it appears to be quite as 
hardy'as any of the other species which we have known 
for years in our borders. This is such a noble plant, that 
we should say it will ever have a place in our cool conserva- 
