50 GARDENING FOE PROFIT. 



when the sashes are placed on, it Avill give them the neces- 

 sary angle to receive the sun's rays and throw off the rain. 

 The sashes should be made as tight fitting as they will 

 easily work, and the plank, forming the sides of the box, 

 should be high enough to cover the thickness of the sash, 

 in order to prevent the cold air from penetrating. This is 

 one style of hot-bed frame, and the one most commonly 

 used in private gardens; but in our market gardens, 

 where a large surface is used, our necessities compel us to 

 adopt a far more economical mode, both in the cost of the 

 frame work and heating material. This is done somewhat 

 after the manner adopted for Cold Frames. Parallel ex- 

 cavations are made, usually in lengths of GO feet, 2^ feet 

 deep, and 6 feet wide ; the sides of these pits are boarded 

 up with any rough boarding, nailed to posts, and raised 

 above the surface 18 inches at the back, and 12 inches at 

 front. Strips are stretched across, on which the sashes 

 rest, wide enough to receive the edges of the two sashes 

 where they meet, and allow of a piece of about an inch 

 between them, so that the sash can be shoved backward 

 and forward, and be kept in place in giving air, etc. 



The heating material is next in order; this should be 

 horse dung, fresh from the stables, added to which, when 

 accessible, about one-half its bulk of leaves from the 

 woods. The manure and leaves should be well mixed and 

 trodden down in successive layers, forming a conical heap, 

 large enough to generate fermentation in severe winter 

 weather. Care must be taken that the material is not al- 

 lowed to lie scattered and get frozen, else great delay will 

 ensue before heat can be generated. A few days after the 

 pile has been thrown together, and a lively fermentation 



