GARDEN ENGINE, WATERING-POT, AND SYRINGE.

The garden engine, Fig. 7, is a small force-pump, with a pipe or hose of any desired and suitable length, placed in a barrel or water-tight box, and fitted upon a wheeled frame for the convenience of removal at will to any part of the garden. It is used instead of watering-pot and syringe.

The watering-pot, Fig. 8, requires no description. It is used with or without the rose, and a convenient size for use will hold about twelve quarts.

The syringe, Fig. 9, is commonly of brass, having a small, delicately perforated rose (a), without which it is seldom or never used. It is calculated chiefly for syringing plants in the green-house, &c., which would otherwise suffer from the dry heat.

HAND AND BELL GLASSES.

Hand glasses, Fig. 10, A, B, are made of various dimensions, from six to eighteen inches in diameter, or larger, and of divers forms, being square or many angled, conical or flat, deep or shallow. The frames are usually lead, sometimes strengthened by an iron bottom band, and the glass and glazing are ordinarily of the first quality. A small hinged venti

lator (c, c) is sometimes made in the top, which, with a slight tilting of the lower edge, permits of airing the plants without uncovering them. They are used for covering newly-sown and delicate seeds, and newly-made cuttings, to prevent too rapid evaporation, or for protecting tender hilled crops, as early melons, cucumbers, egg-plants, &c.

Their general purposes, particularly for hilled crops, may be answered by an oblong or square wooden box, with a slight pitch to its upper end, over or into which a single large pane of glass is made to slide in small side grooves, so that it may be opened at pleasure, forming, in fact, a miniature garden-frame.

Bell-glasses, Fig. 11, are used for the same general purposes as small hand-glasses, viz., to hasten and secure the vegetation of seeds of special character, and, in case of certain cuttings which do not root readily, to prevent exhaustion before they become prepared to obtain new supplies. They are not glazed, but blown, and sometimes need watching and shading, lest their concave surface become a burning-glass to the young plants they cover.

and 2, or inch and half-inch mesh, which are the only sizes needed in the garden or green-house; and even these may be well dispensed with, unless in extraordinary cases, as where

stones abound in flower compost, or for the purpose of reducing and mixing guano or other powerful manures.

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In the preparation of compost in general, it is much better to mix and reduce the materials with the spade or shovel than with the sieve, which takes out the small lumps that, to most plants, are the very tit-bits" upon which their roots fasten. For the purpose of cleaning flower-seeds, &c., at least two small sieves, of about a foot diameter, will be found useful; one should be No. 12, and the other No. 16, to which others, coarser or finer, may be added, if desired.

FLOWER-POTS.

Flower-pots are designated by their capacity, as half pints (a), pints (b), quarts (c), &c.

should be at the top as one to one, and at the bottom as two to three.

These proportions are nearly represented in Fig. d.

They should never be glazed or over-burned, by which plants in them are injured, probably from exclusion of air, but should have the ordinary porous texture of sound brick, through which air passes, and evaporation and absorption proceed naturally. The drainage-holes in the bottom should range from a full half-inch diameter in the "quarts" to a full quarter inch in the very smallest size. In rooms or on fancy stands they are placed in saucers (as Fig. c), which catch the drainage, but the water should not be allowed to remain in them.

STRAW MATS.

Straw mats (Fig. 14) are convenient and valuable for frame sashes, whether used for winter covering of pit or cold bed, or upon the green-house or spring hot bed. They are easily and quickly made, even by a boy, and may be rather wider and lon

Fig. 14.

ger than a single sash, so that they may overlap, if need be. For a mat intended to be four feet wide, take strong, welltwisted hempen string, about the thickness of a straw, and stretch five strings at ten or eleven inches apart, or six at the floor upward to another

eight inches, from a bar near bar or beam six or seven feet above; strain them tight, and fasten them securely to nails or pins driven for the purpose. Knot firmly on to each of them, just above the lower bar, a second string of the same size, or a little smaller, and only three or four feet long, for lacing-strings, which you can add

to as you find necessary in the progress of the work: these are left hanging loosely on the floor. Next provide a quantity of pretty long straw; place it upon your left hand as you seat yourself like a basket-maker in front of the stretched strings. Take about a boy's handful of the straw, and place it with the butts projecting a few inches outside of the outer string, and lace it to its place by the second or third lacer, passing this around the stretcher, and fastening it with a half-hitch knot; take another handful for the other side, and lay it in with the heads inward, so overlapping the former as to make the whole layer even; fasten it in place, and proceed to lace clear across the mat. Take other equal quantities of straw, and lace them in in the same manner until you attain a height equal to the desired length of your mat. Having fastened your last lacing, cut the stretchers, and tie the ends securely; then lay the mat at length upon the floor, and, with a board or slat for a straightedge, cut the projecting ends so as to make your mat of the desired width, leaving the ends of the straw not more than three inches beyond the outer stretchers (Fig. 14). Such mats will last for several years if kept dried and under cover when not in use. Special care should be taken not to roll them up for summer storing while they are damp.

If it is found convenient to make a frame, upon which the stretchers can be extended horizontally, the work may be still

more easily performed. An old bedstead would answer the purpose well. In this case the straw being at first placed on both hands, the operator, standing between the stretchers, works backward, and, as soon as there is room for it, the straw is laid immediately before him upon the finished portion of the mat. Care should be taken to lace uniformly, and only moderately tight, otherwise the mat will be rigid, as a too closely-knit sock is harsh.

Common bass mats, or loose straw, mulch, or salt hay, are often used for covering frames, &c., but the straw mats made as above directed are better and more convenient.

CHAPTER III.

Implements of common Culture from Plow to Dibber.

IMPLEMENTS OF COMMON CULTURE.

ANXIOUS to restrict the size of this book, the author would willingly have omitted descriptions of implements, &c., but it was perceived that such a course would leave it very incomplete. The advancement of civilization is strikingly marked by the improvements in instruments in aid of labor, whether physical or mental. I have, however, limited the number of implements figured, yet giving all that the most successful cultivator really needs. Those who desire to try more will find it easy to make large additions.

All implements, whether large or small, should be kept clean when not in use, the handles and other wood-work being oiled or painted once a year.