106 STATE POMOLOGIOAL SOCIETY. 



to prove her superiority in that line of work which she can readily 

 do. A forty penny wire spike slightly flattened at the point is the 

 best tool to use in handling celery at this stage. After growing 

 these transplants in boxes a month it would be well to transplant 

 again to a cold frame or, if the weather will permit, to a bed o it 

 of doors, where they may be grown to stocky and well hardened 

 plants for their final removal to rows in the garden. 



HOT BEDS AND COLD FRAMES. 



The hot-bed as an accessory to the household garden is becoming^ 

 each year more common and as it is within the reach of most people 

 and is perfectly available for all, it may not be amiss to give very 

 brief directions for its construction and management. 



First, choose a location if possible on the lee side of a building 

 or board fence. If this cannot be done, make a wind-break on the 

 side of the bed toward the prevailing winds. The ground chosen 

 should be free from all danger of flooding by surface water in the 

 spring. For the bed an excavation should be made eighteen inches, 

 deep, six feet wide and as long as the bed is desired. For ordinary 

 gardens a two or three sash bed would be sufficient. Sashes are 

 generally three feet wide. The excavation should be lined up with 

 plank which should rise above the common level of the ground from 

 two to tour inches, and on the edges of these planks the plank 

 frame of the hot-bed should rest. The Irame should be made of 

 inch and a half pine and be well painted. The end pieces I would 

 cut six feet long and taper them from sixteen inches wide at one 

 extremity to four or six inches at the other. This would give a 

 pitch to the sash of ten or twelve inches. The high and low walls 

 of course must correspond with the wide and narrow ends of the 

 end pieces. The sash can probably be bought all glazed cheaper 

 than they could be made by any one besides a carpenter. The 

 heating material to be used will generally be strawy stable manure 

 and it should be placed in a pile and allowed to warm up thoroughly 

 and be forked over two or three times to secure an even heat before 

 it is put in the bed. Enough of this should be used so that when 

 it is well trodden down it will be at least twelve inches deep. On 

 this should be spread nicely enriched garden soil to the depth of six 

 or eight inches. 



Afler the bed is set up it should not be planted until the fierce 

 heat is out which will be in about five or six days. As to wattrirg» 



