Cone Hanging-basket,
you need not wait until winter, for, being in the country, your materials are all close at hand, and there is no reason why you should not start one immediately. Having selected your cone, shake out the seeds, if any remain in it, and tie a cord around at about the middle, leaving a loop on the top by which to hang it, as in the illustration. Fill the interstices with lightly sifted earth, scatter a handful of wheat or oats over it, and thoroughly dampen the whole. Hang the cone in your window, keep it damp, and shortly the grain will sprout and the cone will become a mass of vivid green.
Of course the beauty of the cone hanging-basket does not last a great while, but a new one can be so quickly and easily prepared that, with a store of half a dozen cones, you may have one fresh and green in your window all winter. Almost any kind of small cereal will sprout if treated in this way, and each time you can plant different seeds.
Fig. 121.
If you happen to have sweet grass in your collection, make it into
Sweet-grass Mats
to put in the linen closet or bureau-drawers. These mats, placed between sheets or clothing, impart such a sweet, country perfume you will be surprised and delighted with the result. Take seven or eight stalks of the sweet grass, cut off the flower-heads, bunch the stalks together, and with a long, strong blade of the grass, wrap tightly into a rope, as in Fig. 121. Make several of these ropes before beginning your mat. Then coil one in an oblong, and sew it together, as shown in the diagram, Fig. 122.
Fig. 122. When the first rope is nearly used up, wrap the free end securely to the end of another rope and continue to coil as before. When finished, the longest diameter of the mat should measure about seven inches. You will notice in