HOT-BEDS AND COLD-FRAMES 151 



crumbles easily even when moist, will both warm quickly and 

 hold its moisture. If you find that you have just this sort 

 of thing in the garden, you will not need to specially mix it. 

 Store from frost enough of it to make a layer six to nine inches 

 in depth over the whole of your frame. You may wheel it into 

 the cellar, or you may even store it in the sub-frame, if you 

 cover deeply enough with hay or leaves to keep out the frost. 



And having done all this, you can, at your leisure, while the 

 winter progresses, prepare the frame. Unless it is a very 

 small one, make it so that it can be taken apart. Besides 

 this, I need to tell you only two things. First, the front 

 should be lower than the back by about one-half. Standard 

 frames are sixteen inches high at the back and eight inches in 

 front. Pony frames measure about twelve and six inches. 

 The smaller the frames the lower they should be, in order to 

 get the sun to as many square inches of soil as possible. 

 Secondly, there should be a " rafter," running from front to 

 back of the frame, between every two sash. For while the 

 frame can, of course, hold as many sash, side by side, as we 

 please, these openings let in the cold and the rain. Each 

 rafter, then, and each end-piece supports the edge of the 

 sash from beneath, and fits close along its side ; besides, each 

 supporting strip is grooved to carry away the rain. The 

 rafter should be loose in its place, or fastened lightly in, so 

 that it can be lifted out to permit working inside the frame. 



Let us study, for a moment, one further problem. When 

 the day is fine and sunny, it will be warm inside the frame. 

 But the nights will always be colder, and many days in Febru- 

 ary and March will be bitterly cold and stormy. A single 

 sheet of glass will not keep the plants secure against the 

 cold. What can we do in such a case ? 



Some people use a sash with a double layer of glass. It 

 has two great advantages. In the first place it admits light, 



