134 PRACTICAL GARDENING. 



gi-ound, for wliich it is better adapted than that wliicli has 

 rotted to mould, because, not being decomposed, it w\R lighten 

 the gTOund more, and let the air in ; but all the dung that is 

 immediately under the bed has fairly decomposed into mould 

 that can be run through a sieve, and may be mixed "with any- 

 thing or everything for immediate appropriation. 



According to the different purposes to which a hot-bed is to 

 be appropriated, so must the wood-work be adapted by its 

 make and dimensions. In raising the seeds of annuals and 

 of cucumbers and melons, and for growing them afterwards, 

 the ordinary box and light is sufficient, and whether single 

 light, two, or even three-light, will make no difference ; but 

 when a box and light is made for forcing flowers or forwarding 

 plants, or anything requiring height, the back should be two 

 feet six inches high, and the front one foot six, and the width 

 should be four feet. In growing small plants up from seed, 

 such as balsams and cockscombs, or other tender annuals, they 

 wiU do very well in the ordinary box until they pretty nearly 

 touch the glass ; they may then be transferred to the deep 

 box, and set on pots reversed to keep them tolerably well up ; 

 for no plant does well far from the glass ; nothing can prevent 

 their drawing up long and weakly in comparison to those 

 grown near. As these plants advance, the pots they stand on 

 must be changed to shorter ones, till at length they may stand 

 on the bed itself, and perhaps even then soon touch the glass ; 

 there is only the alternative then of sinking the pots in the 

 bed, or raising the woodwork of the frame on pots or bricks, 

 and piling soil up against the sides to keep in the heat, and 

 keep out the air. 



One of the nicest of the operations in the management of 

 hot-beds is the giving of air, and letting out of the steam ; 

 generally the hot-bed may, when at the height of its warmth, 

 be kept a little tilted behind, and when the sun is out very 

 hot and bright they require shading ; but the use of a glass is 

 almost indispensable. The temperature must be managed 

 according to the work it is doing ; cucumbers and melons will 

 bear eighty to ninety degrees well, but the lowest should be 

 sixty-five, and the highest seventy-five, so that when you find 

 the heat up to that, increase the admission of aii*. 



Cucumbers. — One of the unalterable rules in the manage- 

 ment of hot-beds is, to water everything Tvith water that has 

 stood in the frame tin it is of the same temperature. A vessel 



