206 PRIZE GARDENING 



first half of April, and five or six-cent cotton cloth the 

 *last half. Cold frames need covering every night the 

 first half of April with canvas or blankets. I lost three 

 hundred tomato plants in cold frame by frost by not 

 doing it. Water just enough to keep them growing. 

 About a week after they are set out stir the dirt with a 

 hand weeder. 



Massachusetts Methods. — Writing along similar 

 lines, a prominent and successful contestant, E. R. 

 Flagg, Worcester county, Massachusetts, thus de- 

 scribes his methods : April 29 a cold frame was pre- 

 pared by placing four boards, each about a foot wide, 

 together like a box without top or bottom, so as to 

 enclose a space six feet square. On top of this frame 

 were placed two hotbed sash, each three feet wide and 

 six feet long. The north side of the frame was raised 

 enough to give the sash a pitch of about four inches 

 toward the south. Eighteen inches in thickness of 

 stable manure was banked about the outside and up to 

 the top of the frame. 



May I, the glass was removed and the rich soil 

 enclosed by the frame was spaded up, thoroughly fined, 

 and sufficient soil added to bring the surface, when 

 leveled, about six inches from the glass. A wheelbar- 

 row load of well-rotted stable manure, two quarts of 

 unleached wood ashes and eight quarts of sifted hen 

 manure were evenly spread over the surface within the 

 frame and thoroughly mixed with the soil. The sur- 

 face was then well raked, all lumps removed, the earth 

 well pressed against the sides of the frame with the 

 head of the rake, and a final raking left the surface of 

 the soil everywhere equally distant from the top of the 

 frame and the glass. 



The pressing of the soil against the inner side of the 

 frame is important in order to prevent uneven settling 

 of the earth after the seed is sown. An uneven surface 



