46 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE 



being raising seeds of early vegetables, such as cauliflowers, cabbages, 

 and lettuces, and also for growing on early melon and cucumber- 

 plants before the bouses or pits in whicb they are to be grown are 

 in readiness for them. In the preparation of the fermenting mate- 

 rials, care must be taken, by frequent turnings, to insure their 

 being thoroughly sweetened before they are made up into a bed ; 

 and to prevent tbe possibility of the cuttings suffering from the 

 noxious gases which arise from improperly prepared stable manure, 

 they should not be put into the frame until a week after it has been 

 put upon the bed. A little air should also be left on night and day, 

 and, in covering with mats at night, the ends of the mats must not 

 hang low enough down the sides to draw the steam arising from the 

 things outside into the frame. Where fermenting materials are 

 scarce, a bed of faggots or brushwood, three feet in thickness, and a 

 few inches larger each way than the frame, may be made, and the 

 temperature raised to the necessary degree by means of linings of 

 warm fermenting materials put round the outside. In either case, 

 the surface of the bed inside should be covered with a thin layer of 

 turf and a few inches of ashes, in which to partly plunge the pots. 



"Wherever there is a pine or plant stove or a vinery at work, 

 and a portion of the pipes situate so that plants placed upon them 

 may receive a moderate amount of light, the whole stock of bedding 

 plants may be struck without the aid of an ordinary hotbed at all. 

 Thousands of cuttings are struck here annually in the following 

 manner: — We have several boxes three feet in length, two in width, 

 and twelve inches in depth ; the bottoms are constructed of stout 

 perforated zinc, with three iron bands, an inch in breadth and an 

 eighth of an inch in thickness, to support the weight of the pots. 

 The boxes are placed upon the hot-water pipes of one of the houses 

 at work, at a point where they are near the glass, and six inches of 

 tan placed in the bottom in which to plunge the pots. Cocoanut- 

 fibre refuse or sand would also answer very well. The heat com- 

 municated by the pipes is ample, and the bother, dirt, and anxiety 

 attendant on a hotbed is entirely dispensed with. 



In a garden where the whole glass it contains is comprised in a 

 greenhouse or conservatory, the plan described in the foregoing 

 paragraph cannot be carried out, because the heat from the pipes 

 will not be constant. There are, however, several contrivances for 

 propagating purposes, which can be heated with lamps. I have not 

 had much experience with the propagating cases heated in this 

 manner, but during last spring and summer I saw one of the cases 

 manufactured by Messrs. Barr and Sugden, 12, King Street, Covent 

 Garden, at work several times, and it appeared to answer admirably, 

 and my friend states that he is thoroughly satisfied. They are 

 effectively and cheaply heated, and so cleanly, that for lady gardeners 

 they must be pronounced a great boon. Figures and descriptions 

 of two of the cases will be found at page 253 of last year's volume, 

 to which those in want of a heated case can refer. 



The soil used for filling the cutting pots should be light and 

 sandy. We generally employ the old soil from the potting bench 

 for this purpose ; we first sift it, and then mix with it a fourth part 



