CHAPTER XIV 



METHODS UNDER GLASS 



For starting all early vegetables, a hotbed or 

 greenhouse is absolutely necessary. The hotbed may 

 be simply a frame of boards set over a pile of manure 

 and covered with a glass or muslin sash, or it may be 

 an expensive structure made by excavating a pit and 

 building a masonry wall of bricks and mortar. This is 

 the best sort of hotbed, and when once built will last 

 for many years, and give better satisfaction than any 

 other style. But the expense is something which the 

 majority of farmers and gardeners cannot afford, so 

 that a pit lined with two-inch plank is the next best 

 substitute. But where gardening is carried on on a 

 large scale a small forcing house or hotbed heated by a 

 small stove will be found much more economical and 

 satisfactory. The forcing house contains a larger 

 amount of air and can be run at a more uniform tem- 

 perature. 



A CHEAP FORCING HOUSE 



The ordinary style of forcing house, heated with 

 steam or hot water pipes under the benches, is, of 

 course, the best, but one in which bottom heat is given 

 by a flue made by extending the pipe from the stove 

 under the benches is quite satisfactory. Very good 

 results have been obtained by John Frazer of Wash- 

 ington county. New York, one of the garden contest 

 prize winners, by using a house which was heated with 

 three stoves, one at each end and one in the middle. 



