HOTBEDS AHD COLD FRAMES 91 



plant or pepper, and of tomatoes quite ten to tne inch, 

 cover over oiie-tliird inch deep with light soil from both 

 sides of the trench, gently tapping the soil down with a 

 shingle or light board, so as to bring the seed and earth 

 into intimate contact. If the seed has been soaked and 

 is mixed with wet sand, mix with soine dry sand to make 

 the mass friable. Sand Avill rather aid the germination 

 than hinder it. When sowing germinated seed it must 

 not be exposed to dry soil or wind, or it may be destroyed. 



Stable manure hotbeds will, it may be presumed, 

 continue to be used, in spite of the cheapened construc- 

 tion and completer development of beds and glass houses, 

 heated by fire, cheap as they are, for they are too costly 

 for some, take too much time to erect, and require early 

 preparation. 



Forcing beds for hot air heating may have much 

 the same appearance as manure hotbeds, and may be 

 cheaply made by excavating a pit, or trench, a foot 

 deeper than described for the making of manure hotbeds, 

 and laying in the pit a double line of iron or terra cotta 

 smoke pipe leading from a furnace placed in a deeper 

 pit at one end of the line to the extreme end of the 

 excavation, and back to a chimney built alongside or on 

 top of the furnace, that the heat from the furnace, 

 warming the cold air in the chimney, may drive it out, 

 and thus, creating a partial vacuum, start a steady cur- 

 rent throughout the entire length of the hot air flues. 



Nearly fifty years ago this arrangement was in use on 

 Bloomsdale Farm, though some people think it is a new 

 idea. The smoke pipes in the bottom of the trench 

 are covered over by a floor of boards to support the 

 earth, the floor at the end next to the furnace being 

 twelve to fifteen inches above the pipes, but at the other 

 end approaching to within six inches, because of the 

 loss of heat at tVie extremity. 



Intermediate Bed. — The term "intermediate 

 bed" may be applied to beds or frames used in the au- 



