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Hot Bed Mats

Hot Bed Mats image
Parent Issue
Day
10
Month
February
Year
1881
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Everyone should get ready a supply of mats f or the hot beds. ïhey are essential in working the beds in frosty weather, and by their use the hot bed can be worked successfully while the temperatura is below zero outside. The best material is rye straw; it should be cut rather green and should be as long aml clean as possible. Good long straw makes better mats, and it is less work tiiinakethem than when the straw is short. ïhe tying material is tarred spmi yarn, which can be obtained at tlie sMp chandlery or cordage stores. The mats are made in a frame resembling in shape a carpenter's saw horse but higher, about three feet high; the top is made of two pieces of board placed edgewise, about 1L inches apart, aiul sir feet four inches long. The opper edgesof these boards are notched to receive the striiigs, nine or ten in niniiber, at equal distanees apart. The strlngs are eut, to begin a mat, about six feet long and laid across the frame in the notelies; two handfuls of clean straw are then laid on the strings.butts ontward, and the tops lapping in the middle of the frame; if the straw is long it will lap enongh to make the middle of the mat as thick as the edges, otherwise a small handfnl must be placed in the middle to üll up; a little practice will soon enable one to judgehew much si raw to take for each handful so as to make a good, neat-looking nnit, 1L inches thick. The st rings are tied with a half weaver's knot drawn very tightly; in order to tie tightly it should be done in a warm room so as to make the tarred line work pliantly, and the operator should have his hand guarded with a piece of leather so as to draw the strings taut without blistering his hands. As each handful of straw is tied down it is pushed down between the boards, forming the top of the frame, and when the mat ha.s been made eight to ten feet long it is tied off with a doublé knot and the loose ends of the straw clipped off with sheep shears. A man used to the work will make about ten feet in a day. It is good work for cold and stormy weather in winter, when nothing can be done outside. The mats are yery apt to be injured by mice and rats, who find them tempting places for their winter quarters. A few pieces of bread smeared with Parson's rat polson, scattered around the place where they are stored, so that hens and cats cannot get it, will dispose of them.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Democrat