236 Missouri State Horticultural Society. 



the load in a like manner. Three good loads of manure treated 

 in this way will heat in the coldest weather. After the pile is well 

 fomented ; say in three or four days after the first heat is noticed, 

 it should be turned over, beginning at one end and forming a new 

 heap in a similar manner as the first. If at this turning the heap 

 shows signs of burning, or fire-fang as it is called, give it six or 

 eight buckets of water in the center of the heap, and in four or 

 five days it is ready for the bed. Then begin the bed by turning 

 the manure on the spot where the bed is to stand ; being careful to 

 shake out the manure well and at the same time keeping the bed 

 as level as possible and tramping it well three or four times, till 

 the manure is quite solid to the depth of fifteen to eighteen inches. 

 Then the bed is ready for the frame, which is usually a box six feet 

 wide by twelve feet long, with the back board fifteen inches wide, 

 anp the foot board twelve inches wide, giving the proper pitch to re- 

 ceive the suns rays and also to throw off the rain from the glass. 



The sash mostly used aroun,d Kansas City are six feet long by 

 four feet wide ; three of these sash being placed upon the twelve 

 foot box or frame. Before the sash are placed on the box it is 

 banked around with manure and well tramped to keep the frame in 

 its place. Then it is ready for the dirt, which should be a good 

 light loam well composted with rotten manure ; putting from six 

 to eight inches in depth of this soil in your box. The bed is then 

 well raked down and the sash put on and left a few days when it is 

 ready for the seed. A hot-bed made in this way in December will 

 hold its heat all winter sufficient to grow lettuce or most any other 

 crop by covering, in the severest cold weather. 



Eaising the sash to give your plants air during the winter 

 months is another fine point in the raising of winter crops under 

 glass. Here the best judgment and fine sense of the gardener is 

 well taxed to know how, and just how much, to raise his sash with 

 a good bottom heat beneath his plants, and a bright sun beaming 

 down upon his glass, at the same time a cold north wind blowing a 

 strong gale and freezing everything in the shade. These last diffi- 

 culties to be contended with are the greatest drawbacks to the 

 amateur, as well as the professional gardener, in the managemen 

 of hot-beds in our changeable climate. 



After the hot-bed is ready for the seed it is marked at the 

 proper distance and the marks made the proper depth to suit the 

 seed to be planted. The seed is then drilled in by the thumb and 

 finger and covered by opening the fingers and drawing them down 

 each side of the row. Then a board a foot wide and just long 



