te 
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Sate ™, FORMATION OF HOT-BEDs. 
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ammonia that it contains it will be apt to burnthem. To remember 
that the manure of cows and all animals that chew the cud, is cold 
and suited to a light soil; and that the manure of horses, pigs, and 
poultry is hot and suited to a firm soil: also that all manure, when 
new, may be considered as hot, from the heat that will be engendered 
during the process of fermentation ; and that when well rotten, it be- 
comes cold in its nature, and should be treated aecordingly. To re- 
~ member that all mixed soils are more fertile than soils consisting only 
of one of the three primitive earths, viz., lime, sand, or clay; and 
never to forget that too much manure is quite as injurious to plants 
as too little. 7m 
Formation of hot-beds—Though nearly all the kinds of manure 
which have been enumerated may be used occasionally for hot-beds, 
the only materials in common use in gardens are stable manure, 
dead leaves, and tan. The first of these, which is by far the most 
general, consists partly of horse-dung, and partly of what gardeners 
call long litter, that is, straw moistened and discoloured, but not de- 
cayed. ‘The manure is generally in this state when it is purchased, 
or taken from the stable, for the purpose of making a hot-bed. 
The necessary quantity of manure is procured, at the rate of one 
cart load, or from twelve to fifteen large wheel-barrowfuls, to every 
light, (as the gardeners call the sashes of the frames,) each light 
being about three feet wide ; and this manure is laid in a heap to fer- 
ment. In about a week the manure should be turned over with a 
dung-fork, and well shaken together; this operation being repeated 
two or three, or more times, at intervals of two or three days, till the 
whole mass is become of one colour, and the straws are sufficiently 
decomposed to be torn to pieces with the fork. 
The size of the hot-bed must depend principally on the size of the 
frame which is to cover it; observing that the bed must be from six 
inches to a foot wider than the frame every way. ‘The manure must 
then be spread in layers, each layer being beaten down with the 
back of the fork, till the bed is about three feet and a half high. The 
surface of the ground on which the hot-bed is built, is generally raised 
about six inches above the general surface of the garden; and it is 
advisable to lay some earth round the bottom of the bed, nearly a 
foot wide, that it may receive the juices of the manure that will drain 
from the bed. As soon as the bed is made, the frame is put on and 
the sashes kept quite close, till a steam appears upon the glass, when 
