170 MANUAL OF GARDENING 



placed in the hotbed, and is covered with the earth in which 

 the plants are to be grown. 



Hotbed frames are sometimes set on top of the pile of fer- 

 menting manure, as shown in Fig. 204. The manure should 

 extend some distance beyond the edges of the frame; other- 

 wise the frame will become too cold about the outside, and the 

 plants will suffer. 



It is preferable, however, to have a pit beneath the frame 

 in which the manure is placed. If the bed is to be started in 



204. Hotbed with manure on top of the ground. 



midwinter or very early in the spring, it is advisable to make 

 this pit in the fall and to fill it with straw or other litter to 

 prevent the earth from freezing deep. When it is time to make 

 the bed, the litter is thrown out, and the ground is warm and 

 ready to receive the fermenting manure. The pit should be 

 a foot wider on either side than the width of the frame. 

 Fig. 205 is a cross-section of such a hotbed pit. Upon the 

 ground a layer of an inch or two of any coarse material is placed 

 to keep the manure off the cold earth. Upon this, from twelve 

 to thirty inches of manure is placed. Above the manure is a 

 thin layer of leafmold or some porous material, that will serve 

 as a distributor of the heat, and above this is four or five inches 

 of soft garden loam, in which the plants are to be grown. 



