THE HOTBED AND ITS USES IN VEGETABLE GARDENING. IO5 



have good plants you can keep putting in lettuce up to May 1st, 

 with a good chance of marketing it in advance of outside lettuce. 



About March 15th sow cucumber seed for hotbed crop. Sow 

 the seed either broadcast or in drills, either in greenhouse or hotbed ; 

 cover with sand. They will come up quicker if you will cover with 

 glass pressed down on the sand ; remove this glass when the plants 

 are plainly seen under it. Transplant into four-inch earthen pots 

 or berry boxes when plants are just starting the third leaf. This 

 will be about April 1 to 5. May 1st you will have nice plants. 

 Remove the plants and dirt from the pots or boxes and plant them 

 in center of sash, place having been made for them by leaving out 

 four or six lettuce plants. I have always had the best success with 

 both lettuce and cucumber plants when they have been kept grow- 

 ing right from the start. Lettuce plants I would keep at 40 if pos- 

 sible at night and on cloudy days, and yo° to 90° when the sun is 

 shining. Cucumbers I like at 8o° at night and ioo° in the sun. 



There are very successful gardeners who make and manage their 

 hotbeds in a manner entirely different from the way I have tried to 

 describe to you, and I never fail to gather useful information at 

 any visit I may make to them. We are usually too busy to visit 

 much during the hotbed season, and so lose the benefit of each 

 other's experience. This paper just scrapes over the surface of this 

 subject, but if what I have written proves of advantage to any of 

 my hearers it will be some return for the kind attention you have 

 given me. 



Mr. Frank Yahnke : I would like to have the gentleman ex- 

 plain how he transplants cucumbers. 



Mr. Waddell: Just take the plant up carefully with a stick and 

 make a hole in your bed and stick it in; it will start right off and 

 grow. It is no more trouble than to transplant lettuce. Another 

 way is to lay the pot over on its side and fill it half full of dirt and 

 then put in your plant; it is no trouble at all. I just want to say a 

 word in regard to a statement made by the gentleman who pre- 

 ceded me when he said he would make a pit under his hotbed. I 

 would not do that; it holds the water. I want the surface water 

 to run off just as fast as possible. My idea is that that pit would 

 hold water and cause trouble, and that is what we want to get rid 

 of. If your hotbed were built in the sand the water might drain 

 awav, but if it is in clav I don't think it would do at all. 



