162 



MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Hotbeds and Cold Frames Nine Months in the Year. 



N. A. RASMUSSEN, MARKET GARDENER, OSHKOSH, WIS. 



I think that yesterday some may have got the impression 

 that I was irrigating and watering for experimental purposes in 

 connection with the University, but if you got that impression I 

 want to change your minds. I am growing strawberries and 



gardening for profit, and the hot- 

 beds and cold frames I am now 

 going to speak about are part 

 of the business in which I make a 

 living. They are not run for plea- 

 sure, although it is a pleasure to 

 do work of that kind, but pri- 

 marily as a matter of profit. It is 

 the same with the strawberries 

 we spoke of yesterday. I water 

 them because I noticed that I 

 could get better crops by so do- 

 ing. That is why I irrigate and 

 not for experimental purposes or 

 because I am connected with the 

 University. 



You have just been speaking 

 about the high price of manure 

 and the cost you are up against. 

 We are paying about a dollar a 

 load for manure besides the 

 hauling, consequently we made 

 up our minds we couldn't afford 

 to run hotbeds only two months in the year but had to extend 

 them over a longer period of time in order to pay for the expense 

 and work we are putting on them. We make a practice of run- 

 ning them about nine months in the year. Another thing we had 

 to do was to cut down the amount of manure we used. We used 

 to have the beds on top of the ground entirely ; we didn't care how 

 much manure it took. We needed the manure for the garden 

 anyway, and we didn't think the loss was so big, but now we dig 

 down and use pits altogether. We take a common frame and set 

 it on top of the ground and then dig down about a foot, using the 

 dirt we dig up to bank with and protect it so that the wind will 

 shoot over it. We make the frame higher on the north side, thus 

 giving it a slant. We use the manure after it has been forked 



N. A. Rasmussen, market gardener and 

 institute worker. 



