HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 237 



DISCUSSION, 



Mr. Miller. What do you do with the small squash bugs? 



Mr. Sampson. I try to destroy them. I have tried differ- 

 ent plans in doing it. I have tried the planting of beans in the 

 hills; I have tried ashes, but the best process I have tried is pinch- 

 ing. I am not very thoroughly versed and there are others here 

 better prepared to give ideas on the handling of insects than I 

 am. 



Mrs. Kennedy. Do you ever try feeding them on milk ? 



Mr. Sampson: No, but I read of a squash one time that was fed 

 with milk and upon cutting it, the inside was found to be solid 

 butter. (Great Laughter). 



Mrs. Kennedy. That would be quite an improvement. There 

 is a gentleman who lives on the prairies west of us, who said that 

 the way he raised them, was to take a pan of milk and put the joint 

 of the vine next to the melon in the pan of milk and in twenty 

 minutes it would absorb all the milk. 



President Elliot then read the following paper: 



HOT BEDS. 



By E. Nagle, of Minneapolis. 



A little may be said about the hot beds. Perhaps most of you 

 know how to make hot beds, but there may be' some of the mem- 

 bers of this society that do not know, therefore it may be well to 

 explain how to make them and how to take care of them. 



There are different methods of making hot beds. The old way 

 is to dig a hole or pit in the ground the size of the bed you wish 

 to make, and board it up; have it about two feet deep, five feet 

 wide, and any length, according to the amount of sashes you have; 

 run it east and west so as to have the sashes slant to the south 

 to catch the full rays of the sun — the north side should be from 

 four to six inches higher than the south side. 



After that is finished and you get ready to start the hot bed 

 take good, fresh stable manure and pack it in evenly; fill up with- 

 in six inches of the top; place the sashes on and let it heat until 

 it is heated enough all over the bed evenly, then tramp it down 

 and if not full enough, put on some more manure; then put on from 

 three to four inches of good earth (taken from the pile which 

 should have been covered with manure in the fall so as to be accessi- 

 ble it when it is wanted. ) Then let it stand again with the sashes 

 on until it is again heated, which will be in about two or three 

 days. Then a thermometer should be put in the earth and if it is 

 not over 90 degrees it is ready to plant in. 



