104 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the yard (which is the usual way), put the second fourteen or six- 

 teen inches south and parallel with the first. Fill this walk or space 

 between the rows with manure dry, or frozen if you have it, anyway 

 have the top four inches of this dry stuff. The wet manure will 

 freeze in a foot, when if covered with dry four inches it will not 

 freeze at all. I once tried to save labor by filling the frame with 

 manure when I built the beds, and then take out enough to bank the 

 walks with of the wet, hot manure. It froze to the bottom of the 

 frame, and I had to remove it. Bank the ends of these rows well 

 two feet or more. 



In from five to seven days these beds should be hot and ready 

 for earth. Then remove the sash and tread the manure. until it is 

 quite solid and fill the soft places. If this is well done, the earth 

 will come off much nicer in the fall, and if the manure is level and 

 the top of the earth level you will have it the same depth all over. 

 Spank the loose straws down so that the} - will not stick up into the 

 earth and catch into the rake. Put in six inches of earth, and when 

 the earth is nicely warmed through, probably in one or two days, 

 your bed is ready for plants or seeds. If it is about the first of 

 March, and you have good plants raided in the greenhouse or earlier 

 beds, you can have fine lettuce for market or the table in twenty-five 

 to thirty days. 



The sash should be covered with shutters on cold nights. They 

 should be opened a little in the morning when the thermometer 

 shows 70° to 75°, when it will probably drop back to 6o°to 65 . If 

 in the middle of the day it should go to 8o° to 85° open a little 

 more ; by four o'clock if it is not above 8o° it will be safe to close 

 the sash. If the wind is freezing, open the sash on the side or end 

 away from the wind. 



A crop of radish can be raised in a bed of this kind in thirty 

 days. Sow the seed in drills one-half an inch deep, the drills about 

 four inches apart. It would be well to> test radish seed. If it all 

 grows a seed every one-half inch is plenty ; if only fifty per cent is 

 good sow it twice as thick. I believe that all seeds used by gar- 

 deners for forcing purposes should be tested the year before, so that 

 you may know that they will grow and also that they are true to 

 name. This is especially true as to lettuce and cucumbers, for fif- 

 teen cents worth of these seeds will produce $500.00 worth of vege- 

 tables, while if your seeds were not true to name you might expend 

 the same amount of labor, the use of your sash and grow a poor 

 crop, which would bring half price or less, and always hard to sell. 

 April 1st is about as late as radish seed can be sown in hotbeds and 

 get the crop to market before the outside crop gets in. But if you 



