562
of tho poles is disengaged and rolled baek to tho side of tho other, where it is fastened ns
before T h o most violent winds have no injimous effect upon shades of this kind ; a
wnH is verv expeditiously covered and uncovered; and there is not any danger of
d!,ma»-ing the blossoms in using them ; they occupy very little space when rolled up ;
are not liable to be out of order ; and, although rather expensive at first, soeni to beyefy
dm-able Fi-om the facility with which the screen is put np, it may be beneficially
nsed in tho seasons when fmit ripens, to secure a succession, by retarding the crop of
anv narticiilar tree. Tho lower ends of the poles are advantageously retained m thoir
places by means of a small iron spring-key, attached to the coupling by a short chain.
(JTori. Tram., vol. iv.) Canvas, oilcloth, or gauze screens, may be similarly formed
" "m M i rA e canvas screen is a sheet of canvas in a movable fi-ame, to bo placed against
blossonfing wall-trees dm-ing nights, and romoved dm-ing temperate weatlier. Bnntmg,
or buntine, a kind of thin wooUon cloth nsed for making flags, &c., when roiidorod
more transparent hy oiling, is considered hy Nicol as preferable to canvas. Others
recommend Osnabm-gh or Scotch gauze. The screens should have hooks, to slip into
proicctin»- eyes at the top of the w a ll; from which, as weU as at tho bottom, they should
t e kept distant one or two feet. “ Canvas screens, in fi-ames, may be fitted to move, m
the manner of a common sash, between rafters, and may be double, as m a window, to
so either up or down, in order to admit air. The rafters being made movable by being
L e d with hooks to stretchers at top and bottom, the wffiole conld easily he removed or
replaced at pleasure. Thus a ft-ame may be made of ten, fifteen, twenty, or more feet
in lenvth, to answer for one or more trees, as may be required; and, if the whole be
packed and laid up in a diy loft, garret, or shed, each season after using, it may last tor
194S. A very simple mode o f fixing coping hoards to afruit-wall, and suspending from
tliem a curtain made of old ships’flags,
which may be bought by the hundredweight,
is to have the coping boards
of sufficient width to project over the
spurs and branchlets of the tre e s ;
and the buntine to be nailed along
the edge, and drawn up by cords six
feet apart, lomning througli rings.
The cujtain is kept from touching
the trees by taiTcd cords, in the
quincunx form (/gr. 530.). A long
nail may be driven in at the intersecting
points of the cords, by means
of which they may be fastened so as
“ M t e f r is so arranged, by means of pulleys and floLnLml
drawn up over a waU, of a hundred feet in length, m a few seconds, and let d o m and
spread o L to dry in nearly as short a time. I t is kept at a distance J f
cords stretched from the coping to the gronnd in a sloping direction; a fine example of
this occurs at Dalmeny P a rk garden, near Edinburgh, erected under the inspection
r f j H a T of id in b u i-L , a mLitorions designer of kitehen-gardens. “ H screens be
made in sheets,” Nicol observes, “ they are best to hoist up and lower with puUo;^
and cords (which pulleys may he fixed to the coping, as above mentioned, or to a beam
or stretcher fixed at tho top of the wall). They should t e f iL S t e rfaced
or spars, of an inch and a half to two mches square, according to their lengths, placed
so closely as to prevent the canvas fi-om dashing against the trees, as above hinted.
Sheets of tliis kind may bo of any convement size, and X ^ w h id i I M i d
trees as mav he required. I have had one sheet 200 feet m length, which I could
join ’or unjoin at two or three different places and could “ J™ "
and clew up, in fifteen or twenty minutes. I flrst contrived it to clew at the “ P <>i
wall, bnt afterwards found it safer to do it at tho bottom, as a » J
neariy tom it away altogether. In the clew it was hung by loops to the bottom part
of the upright spars (which were placed at four feet asunder), so as to he a few inches
clear of the ground. These rafters were fastened with hooks and eyes to the copm^
a t to p ; and at bottom to stakes di-ivcn fast into the earth, eighteen mches clear of the
' f s 4 8 . ^ ^ ! e ’^Ak2 -paper frame consists of a light ft-ame of timber, -with cross bars
mortised into the sides, and intersected by packthread, forming meshes about
square. Common printing paper is then pasted on ; and, when quite diy, it is painted
o?er with boiled Unseed oil. These frames are then fitted to the wall, or subject of pio-
tection, according to circumstances. Cow-hah- netting is sometimes used instead of
packtlircacl, and calico or mnslin covered Avitli Wliitncy’.s composition is substituted for
oiled paper.
1949. Garden hurdles are of different species.
Wire hurdles are used as inconspicuou.s fences, and sometimes for training plants or
young hedges.
Wattled hurdles, or such as are woven with shoots or spray, for shelter and shade.
Straw and reed hurdles are used for shelter, for shade, and for covering frames and
other plant habitations, or for forming temporaiy cases around plants to exclude cold.
1950. Movable edgings to borders, beds, or patches of flowers, arc of different species.
1951. The basket-edging (fig. 531.) is a rim or fret of iron who, sometimes of laths,
foiTQed, when small, in entire
pieces; and Avhen large, in 531 532
segments. Its use is to enclose
dug spots on lawn s; so that,
when the flowers and shi-ubs
cover the surface, they appear
to grow from, or give some
allusion to, a basket. These
articles are also formed in cast
iron, and are used as edgings to beds and plots in plant-stoves and consenaatories.
1952. The earthenware border (fig. 532.) is composed of long naiTow plates of common
tilc-clay, with the upper edge cut into such shapes as may be deemed ornamental.
They fonn neat and permanent edgings to parten-es, and arc used, more especially in
Holland, as casings or borderings to beds of florists’ flowers.
1953. Edgings, o f various sorts, are foi-med of wfre, basket-willows, laths, boards,
plate iron, and cast iro n ; the last is much the best material. They may also be of
various foi-ms, but the most convenient are those shoAvii in figs. .533, 535, and 537., whicli,
535
538
when a fo o t in w id th , a n d made o f g o o d s tro n g iv ire , c o s t a b o u t tw o -p e n c e e a c h ; and
th e s e fig u re s m a y be c om b in e d in Ararious Avays; fo r e x am p le , as shoAvn infigs. 534. 536.
and 538.
1954. Protecting bags, for guarding ripening fruits from insects, arc formed of gauze,
oilcd-paper, or muslin p a p e r; gauze is preferable, as it admits the air. They are used
with advantage in the case of grapes and stone-fruit on walls in the open a i r ; and, in
some cases, are required even in hothouses.
1955. The shoe-scraper is a plate of ii-on, fastened vertically, either in a portable or
fixed frame; and, to render it complete, it should always have a rigid brasli and diist-box
attached, both of which may be taken out and cleaned. The use of shoe-scrapers in
gardening is considerable; portable ones being placed at the entrances to every description
of garden building, and fixed ones at the exits from compartments to the main
walks. They ought to abound, and their use to be effectually insisted on, wherever clean
and pure gravel or tu rf Avahcs ai-e desired objects.
1956. Garden or bast mats are woven or matted from the hast (Russ.) or inner bai'k
of trees, generally of the lime. They are manufactured in the inland parts of Russia
and SAveden, and CAran in some parts of Monmoutlishii-e, of different sizes. They _ai-e
used, in gardening, for a great vai’iety of purposes; for protecting Avah-trecs, by being
hung before them, and removed in mild w eath er; for protecting espaliers and standards,
by being throAvn over th em ; for protecting more delicate shrubs, by being tlirOAvn OArar
an envelope of hay or straAv, in Avhich Avay most American trees and standard roses are
protected in the neighbourhood of St. Pete rsburgh; for protecting tender plants coming
through the groimd, by being spread on its surface, and such as ai-e of a larger size, by
being supported on hooped framing. They are used to cover hotbeds, hotliouses, hando
o 2