THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
January 30. 
332 
WHICH ARE THE BEST COVERINGS? 
The mediums for protecting pits, houses, Ac., are 
occupying considerable space in these pages, and also 
that of contemporary journals. Some time ago, to meet 
the case of many inquiries, I went rather largely into 
the subject, and some wish to know if my views or plans 
have undergone no change. I cannot say that they 
have ; though I am not so fortunate as to have wooden 
covers, I still think that for pits, houses, Ac., they are 
the best, and by far the cheapest in the end. Next to 
these, I would place asphalte felt, firmly secured to a 
frame of wood, and the felt tarred afresh every second 
year, or rather every year. Straw-covers I use extensively, 
and just because I can get hold of the wood for the frames, 
and can manage to get the straw, without their forming an 
item in the garden bill; and because the repairing and 
making of them furnishes comfortable work for the 
men in-doors, in bad weather. The relative first, and 
ultimate expense of the various modes was attempted 
to be given in a previous volume. 
So much are things judged of by the present rather 
than the ultimate expense, that these straw-covers seem 
coming into vogue. Models of them are even sent to 
be exhibited at our great societies ; 'though I have used 
them for nearly twenty years, and have found that others 
had used them before 1 was in leading-strings; and, as 
useful things, in many circumstances, had long ago been 
recommended by myself and others. Full directions were 
given for making them. For fresh readers I here 
repeat the main points. Measure the length and breadth 
of the sash to be covered, so that in covering a pit the 
covers fit close to each other all the way along. Then 
to make a single cover, get three slips of wood one inch 
thick, and from two to three inches broad. Two of 
these form the sides of the cover, and one goes right in 
the centre. You will perceive that these three pieces 
will sustain the whole weight of the cover. Being set 
out to the requisite width, cross-pieces are nailed to 
these three longitudinal pieces, first at the two ends, 
and then at fifteen to eighteen inches apart in the in¬ 
termediate space. This forms the skeleton of the cover. 
You now turn it upside down, so that all the cross¬ 
pieces are downwards, as these, independently of sup¬ 
porting the straw, keep it also at a distance from the 
sash. As it is desirable not to strain the three longi¬ 
tudinal pieces, these cross-pieces are only half the width 
of the long ones. The spaces between the longitudinal 
pieces are now neatly filled with straw ; so that when 
firmly pressed it will be as thick as the longitudinal 
pieces, namely, one inch. The straw is put in so as to 
mix the upper and lower ends regularly. Then beginning 
at the middle of the corner, a tar-string is fastened to ono 
of the side longitudinal pieces—opposite one of the cross¬ 
pieces beneatli—is pulled firm to another tack in the 
centre longitudinal piece, and taken from thence to an¬ 
other tack on the opposite side piece. A string goes across, 
opposite every cross-piece of wood, until the hollow and 
upper end pieces are reached, when a cross-piece of 
wood is nailed on similar to the one on the opposite 
side, as being being better for taking hold of when 
covering and uncovering than the straw fastened with a 
string. In a cover rather better than four feet wide, it 
will at once be perceived that there will be fully eighteen 
inches of string from the sido longitudinal piece to the 
central one, and that space is too much to enable the 
string to keep the straw firm in the various vicissitudes 
from dryness to wet. In the centre of each of these 
spaces, therefore, a loop is put over the string, passed 
through the straw, and fastened firmly round tire cross¬ 
piece on the under sido. Firmness would at once be 
secured by placing cross-pieces of wood over the straw, 
similar to those underneath it, and I did so for some 
time; but then the covers were more expensive at first, 
and did not last so long; because, in the first place, they 
were heavier, and strained the longitudinal pieces more ; 
and, secondly, because in wet weather the wet lodged at 
the cross-pieces, and thus occasioned rotting there. I 
may add, that I like the straw to be drawn before it is 
thrashed. The soft ears are thus got rid of, and the straw 
tubes are not bruised by the fiail or thrashing machine. 
The other day, a young amateur was rather surprised 
at the outside difference of two small houses; and, as 
illustrative of the whole principle of protection, I will 
here narrate it for the benefit of others. Several inches 
of snow had fallen during the morning. In one part 
the glass was covered with a single layer of mats, the 
inside temperature was from 44° to 40°, but the mats 
were all wet, the snow melting almost as soon as it had 
fallen. In the other house the temperature was from 
55° to 00°, and the glass was covered with these straw 
covers, and the wonder was that there was as much 
snow lying comfortably on these covers as there was on 
the surrounding grounds. Now, if it had been other¬ 
wise, if the snow had rested upon the comparatively 
cold house, our friend would never have lium’d and 
hail’d to find out the cause. I am well aware that 
there are many readers of this, and young gardeners, 
too, who could tell you in a moment why there was 
such a difference. We get told, now and then, that we 
do not write enough to amateurs of little experience; 
but I am sure it is their fault if we do not, for I hardly 
think they could conscientiously charge us with not 
attending to their wishes and enquiries as soon as these 
were made known to us. 
Well, I must tell them, in a few words, how the 
coolish house melted the snow; and the hottish one 
allowed it to remain unmelted. In the first case, when 
the mat was put on there would in many places be a 
stratum of air between it and the glass, and a fail- 
portion of air would be enclosed among the materials of 
which the mat was composed. But as the snow fell, it 
beat down the mat close to the glass, and the intervening 
air must run off as it best could. Then, the air inside, 
being warmer than the air outside, heated the mat next 
the glass, and that, again, melted the snow above it'; and 
that, again, soaking the substance of the mat, in the 
shape of water, drove out the remaining portions of air, 
until the mat, like a wet rag, clasped the glass; and 
thus the mat and glass became as nearly as possible of 
one temperature, and the radiation of heat from them 
united would proceed almost as if from one body ; and 
that heat would continue to melt the snow until the 
inside temperature became too reduced to effect that 
object. 
Now, on the other hand, to prevent the styles and sasli- 
bars being injured by the sliding up and down of the cover, 
laths are tacked on for the winter to the sides, or styles of 
the sashes, and these, when taken off and laid past in 
summer, show that the paint has been uninjured. Well, 
these laths, say a quarter-of-an-inch in thickness, or 
rather more, and the cross-pieces of the straw covers 
one inch in depth, or thereby, generally not above 
three-quarters-of-an-inch, and then the space from the 
glass to the top of the sasli-bars, altogether make a 
space of about two inches of confined air between the 
glass and the cover; and confined air is one of the best 
non-conductors of heat. Then the straw itself, and 
every tube of which it was composed, was a non con- 
ducting-of-heat medium. The fall of snow filled up 
every little interstice on the surface, and thus so 
far confined all the air from the surface of the cover¬ 
ing to the glass. The snow being nearly as cold as 
the atmosphere, and from being white in colour, did 
but little to lower the cover by radiation. The under 
surface of the covering would at first be lower in 
temperature than the underside of the glass, and 
there would be a tendency to equilibrium; but the space 
between prevented the glass and the cover becoming 
