MONTHLY CALENDAR. i85 



to build the bed by. Then proceed to build up the bed, shaking up the dung 

 well and beating it down with the fork. The whole should be equally firm 

 and compact, so that it is not likely to settle more in one part than in 

 another, the surface being quite level. The frame and lights may now be- 

 placed in the centre, but the lights left off, so that the rank steam which 

 always rises from a newly-made hotbed may escape. 



451. These directions for the preparation of the material and making 

 the hotbed apply to all such, whatever the size, thickness, or purpose ; 

 consequently, it will be unnecessary to repeat them ; but there are 

 other modes of making hotbeds. One I have adopted, which is very 

 effective, while it greatly economizes the manure. The trimmings and 

 prunings of trees are tied up into faggots, and with these the walls 

 of a pit are built, the exact size of the frame : on this the frame rests. The 

 faggots are fixed by means of stakes driven through them into the ground, 

 the walls being about four feet high. After the frame is put on, the mixture 

 of dung and leaves is thrown in and well beaten down ; but the job of build- 

 ing a hotbed is dispensed with. The dung is piled nearly up to the glass, to 

 allow for sinking ; otherwise, the management was the same as for an 

 ordinary bed. The advantage of this plan is, first, it requires a trifle less 

 manure ; secondly, the heat from the linings penetrates through the faggots 

 under the bed, and is found more effective. 



452. When the bed is made, the frame and lights put on, and the rank 

 steam passed off, which generally takes five or six days, let a barrowful of 

 good loamy soil be placed under each light ; by the next day this will be 

 warmed to the temperature of the hotbed, and the plants may be planted in 

 it ; no matter how small the plants are, it is better than raising them in the 

 bed in which they are to grow, the shift itself being beneficial, and the time 

 saved being rather more than a fortnight. 



453. When the dung has lain the first week, the seed-bed is made. In 

 three days the rank steam has passed off. A few pots with soil are then put in 

 the frames. The next day the seed may be sown in these, two in each pot ; 

 in three days the plants will be up. They need not be re-potted or disturbed 

 but grown as they are ; and, when the principal bed is ready, turned out of 

 the pots with a ball of eai-th, and sunk in the new soil an inch or so over the ball 

 of earth. If the bed now gives a moderate heat of 75° or 80°, and a sweet steam 

 pervades the inside of the frame, the plants will soon root into the new soil, 

 and grow very fast. Care must be taken, however, that the humidity is not 

 too great, or that, in allowing some of it to escape, cold winds are not allowed 

 to enter ; an excellent preventive being to stretch a piece of fine netting or 

 gauze over the opening. 



454. In covering the lights, during frosts or rough winds, it is advisable to 

 avoid letting the mats, or what not, hang over the sides, as there is ofter 

 danger of conducting rank steam from the linings into the frame. Straw 

 hurdles which exactly fit the lights ai-e better than mats. The covering should 

 be used just sufficiently to protect the plants from frost or cutting winds, 

 without keeping them dark and close. 



