Hotbedsy Cold Frames and Flats 



and planted out and will give one very tender and 

 succulent vegetables to use while the main crop 

 is maturing from open ground sowing. Once 

 one has acquired the hotbed habit one will never 

 have quite room enough for one will always be 

 wanting to try something more. One of the 

 most satisfactory pushing forward of vegetables 

 is achieved in planting melons and cucumbers and 

 squash on pieces of sod in the hotbed. Of course 

 cucumbers for pickles should always be sown 

 rather late in the open ground but fruit for slicing 

 for the table may very profitably be started on 

 sod and transferred to the open ground when all 

 danger of frost is passed and so be ready a good 

 month sooner and what is, perhaps, quite as im- 

 portant, escape the ravages of the striped cucum- 

 ber beetle, that exasperating foe to vine culture. 



A cold wet spell at planting time often results 

 in a loss of the entire planting of Lima and string 

 beans, but if one has taken the precaution of 

 planting a half pint of seed in the hotbed and 

 transplanting them along about the twenty-first 

 of May, one can wait until the first of June, if 



27 



