GARDEN LABELS.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2461, 24 February 1882, Page 3

GARDEN LABELS.

A correspondent of "The Garden" gives the following mode of preparing garden labels, which are nearly imperishable: Firstly, we get a large number of the imported garden pegs, which we find to hare s good surface for writing upon—say, 1000' Bin., 1000 6in., and 2000 Sin. These are first soaked in a solution of 121 b. or so of green yitrol, or sulphate of iron, which is a very cheap article, not costing above Sd per lb. We dissolve it in boiling water, about a stable bucketful. This is then poured in a tub, and about 1000 pegs are placed in it, with a couple of bricks at top to keep them down, and they are allowed to saturate thoroughly for threedays. They are then taken out and spread on a floor to dry, and another batch put in saturation. When all the pegs are pickled we use up the liquor with our plant sticks, Dahlia sticks, &a. The pegs are next saturated in lime water,, a strong solution being placed in the tub, and all the pegs allowed to soak in it for three days, and then dried as before. When all are passed through this they are of a rusty brown colour, and have an almost metallic ring about them, and if cut across it is found that the salts of lime and iron have filled every pore. I think this idea was obtained from a recipe given some time ago in the "Garden " for preserving wood from rot, and we thus adopted it for garden pegs. I think it will be perfectly suooessful, and if so, we have here a very simple prooees for carrying out the first recommendation of the committee. The next point was the colouring of the surface, as the pegs were now of a rusty brown. Attracted by the colour of the pegs sent out by Messrs Haage and Schmidt, of Erfurt, which were of a very bright yellow, elean looking, and exceedingly legible, I wrote to those gentlemen for information, who very kindly replied that they used pure chrome yellow, mixed with oil and a little varnish.

I find this a most exoellent paint, and very* easily obtained and managed. A few ounces of pure ohrome yellow, which is a flaky powder, can be kept in a stoppered bottle, and he mixture of boiled linseed oil and varnish in another bottle. A painter's palette knife and a small slab of marble or slate, or, better still, a painter's palette, will complete the apparatus with whioh the materials can be mixed together in small quantities as required. Our practice is to mix a small quantity about onoe a week, keeping it in a small jelly jar, covered with water when not being used. We mix it thick, taking a little on the pallet, and adding a little turpentine when required. It is best applied to the pegs with a pieee o£ thick woollen cloth, which rubs it well into the grain, and leaves a smooth even surface for writing upon. A brush leaves the paint thick and streaky, and is much more diffienlt to keep clean and ready for use. A few dosen pegs oan be prepared in a very short time, and if carried about in a small flower pot, or, better still, in a covered box, the will keep In fit condition for writing upon for several hours, or you may carry them about in your garden coat pockets without detriment. The best pencil for dear, legible, black writing is a thick parcel pencil, whioh is sold retail for 4d (marked No. 63, B. S. Cohen's paroel pencil). The black core ia about l-Bth in. and it makes a strong black letter. One such pencil will last for a whole season. . . These yellow pegs are less obtrusive in tineborders than the white ones, and the yellow pigment is much more readily mixed and applied than white paint. They look as well in a year as they did when firstpainted, and I see no signs of decay in the wood after nearly a year's exposure in the ground. I enelose a peg for your inspection, taken from the open border, where it has been about a year; also a new one.