HOT-BEDS. 267 



should be made a foot wider than the frame, so that it may 

 project six iaches ia front and rear when the frame is set in its 

 place. 



The frames are now to he placed upon the top of the manure, 

 and the sashes laid on and kept close until the fermentation 

 again sets in. At first this will he violent, and the thermometer 

 will rise to about a hundred degrees if plunged in the manure, 

 but in about three days the heat will subside. When this takes 

 place, and the thermometer plunged in the manure has gone 

 down to ninety, the soil should be put in the frames and spread 

 out evenly to the depth of six or eight inches. 



This soil is prepared during the fall by mixing together some 

 well rotted sods, which have been thrown together early in the 

 summer for this purpose, and one-third its bulk of old, rotted 

 manure. Eotted refuse hops from the brewery make an excel- 

 lent manure for this purpose. 



The situation of the hot-bed should be well sheltered from 

 the westerly and northerly, winds, and have a full southern 

 exposure. Such a shelter can be made, when necessary, by plant- 

 ing a double row of evergreens on the north, east, and west sides 

 of the ground set apart for the frames. In most parts of our 

 country the westerly are the prevailing winds, and it is of 

 more importance to have the shelter on the north and west 

 sides than on the east. Until the evergreens become large 

 enough, a high board fence may be erected, but in a few years 

 the trees will make a most efi"ectual shelter. The Norway Spruce 

 and the White Spruce are excellent trees for such a purpose. 



Beginners are very apt to keep their frames too close and the 

 heat too great. If the result be not the entire burning up of the 

 seeds or plants, it is very sure to be the production of long-drawn, 

 spindling, sickly plants, too tender to be ever of any value. The 

 remedy for this is to lift the sashes, and let in air. This may be 

 very nicely regulated, from the merest crack to any width. 

 When the weather and strength of the plants will admit, the 

 sashes may be drawn off entirely. 

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