THE MAKING OF HOT-BEDS. 129 



make a small hot-bed with about two feet thickness of dung 

 and a small frame and glass, and the cucumbers and melons 

 may be sown, the former three, the latter two seeds in a pot ; 

 these are soon up, and as soon as there are two rough leaves, 

 the eye should be pinched out. This makes them grow strong 

 and stocky instead of running away, and the plants will cover 

 the pots in a month. 



The preparation of the dung for the permanent bed may be 

 begun when the seeds have come up, and by the time the 

 plants are large enough to bed out, this principal bed, made 

 up as we have directed, will be ready to receive them. 



We have said nothing about the number of lights to be 

 provided for, because, whether we prepare for a one, two, or a 

 three-light box it is the same ; and if there be a range of 

 twenty lights, they are put close to each other, and the dung 

 projects only behind and before, and at the two ends ; the 

 operation is precisely the same, but merely extended. Pre- 

 suming the pots t)f plants to be ready, and the beds made up 

 as we have dhected, a barrow of loam should be put in the 

 centre of each light, heaped up like a cone ; then with the 

 hand form a hollow in the centre of each heap, and take the 

 ball of earth whole, with the plants undisturbed, by tapping 

 the pot on the edge with the hand placed so as to receive it 

 plants downwards ; turn the ball up and make the hollow in 

 the centre of the heap, as it were, low enough to let the ball 

 rest upon the three inches of loam, and adjust the loose loam 

 round the ball, but still keep the form of a basin, because, in 

 giving water to settle the earth to the ball, it will not run 

 away. Cover up the frame, and give air by tilting the glass 

 up behind a little. The roots will in a few days make their 

 way through the sides of the heap, when more loam must be 

 put round, and the edge of the basin may be levelled down ; 

 by adding loam every day a little, or perhaps even alternate 

 days, you fill the frame up, so that there is a good nine inches 

 of loam in the middle, but not quite so much towards the 

 frame. The plants will soon begin to grow fast ; and, as the 

 object is to distribute the shoots all round, so as to cover the 

 surface, you have merely to regulate them as they grow; and 

 if all the vigour of a plant seems to go into one shoot, stop it 

 back to two pair of leaves, to induce side shoots; and if 

 all the main shoots seem to give no signs of fruit, stop them 

 back a little. The heat will keep up for weeks if the glass 



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