206 UNION COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 



weather. This crop is generally fit for market the following 

 February and March, when it is cut and washed, packed in 

 cases, and sent by express to market. These cold frames are 

 thus emptied by the last of March, and are again filled with 

 plants of another species, hi the neighborhood of large cities, 

 where a plentiful supply can be obtained, hot-beds are made 

 of stable manure, but here where that article can not be had in 

 sufficient quantity, while wood is abundant, I have resorted to 

 Flue Hot-beds heated artificially and built as follows : 



FLUE HOT-BEDS. 



On an eastern slope I dig a trench about three and a half 

 feet wide by two and a half feet deep, and some eight feet long. 

 In this excavation I build a fireplace sixteen inches wide and 

 sixteen inches high walled up with stone and having a stone 

 cover. From the end of this fireplace two smaller trenches 

 are dug (diverging till they reach five feet apart on outer 

 edge) walled and covered with stone, making two flues about 

 tenHby twelve inches, running parallel the whole length of the 

 be\l and connecting with a chimney, constructed of four boards 

 nailed together, at the farther end. Care is taken that the 

 stone covers on the two flues shall not project beyond a width 

 of five and a half feet, so as to admit the sinking of posts to 

 which the boards constituting the frame are attached and on 

 which the sash are placed. In order to secure an equal temper- 

 ature the full length of the bed, I have earth over the flues 

 next to the fireplace about two feet deep, and at the further 

 end, nearest the chimney, not quite one foot. I have four such 

 flue hot-beds each holding twenty-six sash, in one of v/hich 

 I sow annually tomato seed about the middle of February. 



TOMATOES. 



As soon as the tomato plants have their rough leaves fairly 

 developed they are transplanted into tlie other hot-beds, three 

 inches apart, where they remain until about the first of April. 

 They are then removed and set six inches apart in the cold frames 

 made vacant by the previous cutting of the lettuce. In this 



