November  5,  1903.  JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
413 
owner  of  the  place;  and  in  after  years,  when  his  plan  will  have 
become  timeworn,  let  him  again  imagine  and  enjoy,  now  by 
anticipation,  some  of  the  pleasure  arising  from  the  friendly 
eulogies  bestowed  on  this  specimen  of  art,  a  safe  index  in  itself 
of  a  resolute  mind. 
In  the  desirable  event  of  my  words  having  some  effect  on 
young  gardeners  in  arousing  their  ambition  and  stimulating  them 
to  a  praiseworthy  effort,  the  following  practical  suggestions  will 
be  found  useful.  The  necessary  implements  are  few  and  simple, 
and  include  a  tape  measure  66ft,  with  the  links  and  poles  marked 
on  the  reverse  side,  a  stout  rod  about  10ft  in  length,  two  or  three 
balls  of  strong  tarred  cord,  some  pegs,  and  a  notebook  and  pencil. 
Armed  with  these,  and  replete  with  a  good  stock  of  strong 
common  sense,  and  not  a  little  patient  perseverance,  our  “  sur¬ 
veyor  ”  may  issue  forth  on  his  peaceful  enterprise  with  a  full 
certainty  of  overcoming  every  difficulty. 
I  am  well  aware  that  the  tape  measure  is  regarded  with  sus¬ 
picion  by  men  who  have  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  subject, 
on  account  of  its  susceptibility  to  atmospheric  influence,  but  I 
advocate  it  rather  on  the  score  of  expense  (an  important  con¬ 
sideration  for  the  majority  of  those  who  it  is  wished  will  profit  by 
this  essay),  being  less  cumbersome  and  more  easily  manipulated 
than  the  chain ;  and  if  the  plan  drawer  makes  no  more  enormous 
mistakes  than  would  rei^resent  the  possible  inexactness  of  the 
tape  as  compared  with  the  chain,  he  will  have  much  on  which  to 
pride  himself.  If  he  will  be  advised  to  refrain  from  using  it 
during  wet  weather  and  over  damp  grass,  the  inaccuracy  will 
be  reduced  to  a  minimum.  The  cord  will  be  required  to  form 
a  base  line  when  measuring  irregular  outlines,  and  the  rod  will 
present  a  more  expeditious  method  of  taking  offsets  from  this 
than  the  tape. 
Once  the  good  resolution  is  made,  and  before  metrical  opera¬ 
tions  can  commence,  it  is  essential  to  ascertain  the  approximate 
extent  of  the  ground  to  be  included  in  the  plan,  in  order  to  dis¬ 
cover  the  most  suitable  scale  to  which  to  draw  it.  This  may  be 
found  by  roughly  stepping  the  greatest  length  and  breadth, 
counting  each  step  a  yard  and  adding  ten  to  each  number  to 
allow  a  sufficient  margin  for  any  error.  According  to  the 
estimated  extent  of  the  place  and  to  the  limit  of  size  which  we 
desire  the  paper  containing  the  plan  should  be,  must  the  scale 
be  regulated.  For  instance,  if  the  estimated  maximum  length  be 
500  yards  and  the  breadth  280,  and  it  be  desired  not  to  exceed 
the  “double  elephant”  size  drawing  paper  (40in  by  27in),  a  most 
convenient  scale  would  be  two  inches  to  the  chain,  or,  what  is 
nearly  equivalent,  1-32  of  an  inch  to  the  foot.  It  is  certainly 
preferable  for  beginners  to  use  as  large  a  scale  as  practicable, 
not  only  because  it  is  easier  for  themselves,  but  also  that  they 
may  more  clearly  figure  the  details ;  and  I  strongly  urge  the 
use  of  the  chain  and  links  system,  as  in  casting  up  the  areas — 
presuming  the  drawer  is  acquainted  with  decimals — the  work  is 
greatly  simplified. 
The  area  being  known  in  square  links,  and  100,000  of  these 
equalling  an  imperial  acre,  it  is  only  necessary  to  point  oft  five 
decimal  places,  and  the  figures  to  the  left  of  the  point  are  acres. 
Should  it  afterwards  be  desired  to  find  a  given  length  in  lineal 
or  square  feet,  this  may  be  done  by  multiplying  the  links  by  0.66 
in  the  former  case,  and  in  the  latter  the  square  links  by  0.4356. 
Having  procured  the  measuring  instruments,  decided  on  the 
scale  to  be  employed,  and  obtained  the  paper  and  other  drawing 
requisites,  our  next  con.sideration  is  to  determine  on  a  base  from 
which  to  commence  operations.  As  most  kitchen  gardens  form 
a  rectilineal,  if  not  a  rectangular,  figure,  it  will  be  found  useful 
to  take  the  measurements  from  this.  Find  out  the  direction  the 
walls  take  with  regard  to  the  compa.ss,  and  endeavour  to  so 
arrange  that  a  straight  line  drawn  from  top  to  bottom  of  the 
paper  will  be  precisely  north  and  south  and  at  the  same  time 
parallel  to  the  sides. 
When  the  kitchen  garden  is  accurately  measured  and  drawn — 
and  accuracy  here  is  of  prime  importance — proceed  outward,  and 
as  soon  as  possible  get  to  the  boundary  and  draw  along  the  outside 
of  it  a  line  whose  position  relative  to  the  kitchen  garden  is  pre¬ 
cisely  known.  The  idea  then  should  be  to  find  out  and  figure 
on  the  plan  the  whole  of  the  boundary  thus  forming  the  outer 
shell,  which  we  may  at  once  fill  in  by  locating  the  position  of 
all  buildings,  since  they  will  greatly  aid  us  in  discovering  the 
situation  of  other  portions  of  the  garden,  the  outlines  of  which 
conform  neither  to  the  run  of  the  ruler  nor  the  sweep  of  the 
compass. 
In  measuring  an  irregular  outline  the  best  plan  is  to  run 
a  line  of  tarred  cord  as  near  to  it  as  possible,  and  to  fix  pegs 
along  it  opposite  every  indentation  and  projection,  and  having 
found  their  di.stances  from  the  starting  point,  find  also  their 
distances  perpendicularly  from  the  fence,  treating  the  spaces 
between  each  of  these  discoveropd  points  in  the  boundary  as 
.straight  lines.  Of  course,  the  greater  number  of  offsets  taken, 
the  greater  will  he  the  accuracy  of  the  work.  When  a  marked 
curvature  occurs  to  such  an  extent  that  the  first  cord  line  would 
he  too  far  distant  to  ensure  an  accurate  measurement,  or  it  would 
be  impossible  to  continue  taking  perpendicular  offsets  from  it, 
it  is  evident  that  another  line  must  be  drawn  departing  from 
a  convenient  point  in  the  original.  To  transfer  this  line  to  the 
map  we  must  gain  an  idea  of  the  angle  it  forms  with  the  o  r. 
Now,  measuring  the  angle  with  an  arc  is  likely  to  engender 
grave  error  unless  proper  instruments  are  used.  A  way  wliich 
I  have  found  to  be  at  once  simple,  convenient,  and  accurate,  is 
to  form  a  triangle  (preferably  an  isosceles)  by  joining  by  a  straight 
line,  and  at  a  convenient  distance  from  the  angle,  the  departing 
line  and  the  produced  portion  of  the  original.  Thus,  if  we 
measure  off  twenty-five  links  of  each  from  the  angle  and  find  these 
two  points  to  be  seventeen  links  asunder,  we  must  describe  on 
the  corresponding  base  (twenty-five  lihks)  on  the  plan  a  triangle 
having  its  sides  equal  to  the  scale  of  twenty-five  and  seventeen ; 
and  in  this  way  we  discover  the  direction  taken  by  the  new  line. 
On  the  same  principle  we  may  ascertain  the  location  of  a  tree. 
Presuming  the  tree  to  be  within  reasonable  proximity  to  a 
straight  walk,  we  should  mark  off  a  suitable  portion  of  this  for 
a  base,  and  from  each  extremity  measure  the  distance  to  the 
tree,  which  will  figure  on  paper  as  the  apex  of  the  triangle.  This 
principle  is  based  on  the  seventh  proposition  of  Euclid,  which 
affirms  that :  On  the  same  base  and  on  the  same  side  of  it  there 
cannot  be  two  triangles  having  their  sides  terminating  at  one 
Sarmienta  repens.  (See  note  below.) 
extremity  of  the  base  equal  to  one  another  and  likewise  those 
terminating  at  the  other  extremity. 
The  most  difficult  part  of  the  measuring  business  is  probably 
in  obtaining  accurately  the  outline  of  a  lake  or  pond.  For  this 
it  is  better  to  describe  around  it  a  rectilineal,  though  perhaps 
necessarily  multilateral,  figure,  corresponding  as  nearly  as  pos¬ 
sible  to  the  form  of  the  lake.  In  doing  this,  however,  endeavour 
to  be  scrupulously  exact  in  taking  the  angle,  as  an  error  to  the 
extent  even  of  half  a  link  will  often  throw  the  whole  thing  wrong. 
From  the  lines  of  the  figure  drawn  a  number  of  measurings  will 
enable  us  to  forin  a  fairly  accurate  plan  of  the  sheet  of  water. 
I  would  advise  all  novices  at  the  work  to  draw  each  night  the 
measurements  they  have  taken,  thus  obviating  the  danger  of 
accumulating  a  medley  of  figures. — Wm.  Rowles. 
(To  be  continued.) 
Sarmienta  eepens. — The  woodcut  shows  this  neat  little 
Gesneraceous,  warm-greenhouse  plant.  The  charming  scarlet 
flowers  are  shown  about  natural  size.  They  are  of  inverted  vase 
shape,  hanging  in  scattered  numbers,  and  make  objects  of  rare 
beauty.  The  stems  are  wiry  and  ramble  somewhat  in  growth. 
Propagation  is  by  cuttings,  which  are  difficult  to  root,  but  the 
plant  well  repays  attention.  A  suitable  soil  consists  of  three 
parts  fibrous  peat  and  one  part  sphagnum,  with  sand  and  char¬ 
coal  ;  and  at  Kew  the  plant  is  grown  in  Orchid  baskets  and  the 
same  house  as  the  Vandas  and  Phalsenopses.  It  enjoys  plenty 
of  water  and  a  warm,  moist  atmosphere,  moderate  shade  also 
being  necessary. 
