THE MAKING OF HOT-BEDS. 133 



hot-bed than any other -^ay ; but these are make-shifts, not 

 recommended to people who have other conveniences, but 

 mentioned to show that the common dung hot-bed is capable 

 of being made subservient to many uses. 



Many large establishments with stoves and forcing-houses 

 make, nevertheless, great use of dung-beds, and small estab- 

 lishments where there are no stoves make the hot-beds do all 

 the forcing they are obhged to have ; thus, herbs of many 

 kinds are potted up to force as they are wanted ; fennel and 

 mint, among the rest, being in request weeks before they can 

 be had in the open air. The uses of the dung-bed can there- 

 fore be hardly over-rated, and there is a good deal to be done 

 with them for flowers generally; small American plants, 

 Persian lilacs, azaleas, cyclamens, all the spring bulbs, and 

 many other flowers may be forced in a frame as well, and 

 from its convenience of growing things close to the glass, 

 often better than they can be done in the ordinary forcing- 

 houses. But one of the uses to which they are almost 

 universally applied is, the growing of cucumbers and melons. 

 Wherever hot duns'-beds are used, there is occasion for creat 

 neatness and order ; the dung ought to be piled as square and 

 as straight as possible, and the place around the bed kept 

 clear, that any one may walk round to look at their contents ; 

 generally the beds are made in a place set apart on purpose, 

 and dignified with the name of the melon-ground, and it is 

 possible to have this as tidy as the rest of the ground. The 

 ordinary material for covering at night is bass-matting, but of 

 late there are so many cheap fabrics in the cloth way, that 

 many persons adopt waterproof material, not so thick as to 

 exclude light, and yet generally of quite substance enough to 

 keep the heat from escaping. Many cover with litter, with a 

 notion that the thicker the covering, the more warm a thincj 

 IS kept; but the operation of a covering is merely to prevent 

 heat from escaping, and any non-conducting medium is pre- 

 ferred ; woollen would therefore be warmer than cahco, inde- 

 pendent of its thickness, but waterproof cloth is found to 

 answer all purposes, and to keep the frames much warmer 

 than any matting or litter. The dung of the frames when 

 done with should be divided into two heaps, one of which is 

 ready for use for potting, and must be placed by itself ; the 

 other, which is the outside lining and loose stuft", is not decom- 

 posed, and may be laid in a heap to rot, or be used for the 



