MAKING THE HOT-BEDS 23 



hasten the more rapid heating of the manure in the 

 dark. 



In preparing the ground to be occupied by a rang* 

 of beds the work is carried out as follows : The soil is 

 taken out about 3 ft. 3 in. wide at the base and thrown 

 into a raised heap or ridge the length of the range, 

 so as not to hold the water, or to drain itself if already 

 too wet. When the ground for the first row of frames 

 has been treated in this way, the soil from the second 

 row is used for placing on the hot-bed in the first row, 

 the soil from the third is placed in the second, and so 

 on to the last row. 



The narrow pathway which has been left between 

 each row of frames at first remains empty if the weather 

 is not too severe. According, however, as the hot-beds 

 begin to lose some of their heat, the pathways between 

 the frames are filled up, or " lined," with short or 

 strawy litter, not short, hot manure. This is moistened 

 by the dripping rain from the lights, and with the heat 

 from the beds, the manure in the pathways gradually 

 generates heat and serves to rekindle or conserve the 

 heat in the beds themselves for a longer period. The 

 ends of the frames are banked up with manure about 

 a foot deep, as are also the sides of the first and last 

 row of the entire range, so that eventually all the 

 frames look as if they were embedded up to the lights 

 in a sea of manure. In this way the frames at the 

 ends of the rows are kept as warm as those in the 

 centre. This is an important consideration, especially 

 for growers who wish to gather an entire crop at once. 

 It is from the wet manure in these narrow pathways 

 that the beds in the frames obtain the necessary moisture 

 during the winter months, by capillary attraction. 



