HOW THE PLANTS ARE GROWN 3 



ones that are wanted. For experiment you may plant 

 any other sort or sorts that you care about. 



In a small way, plants may be raised in boxes (so- 

 called flats) placed in a kitchen window. A flat ten by 

 eighteen inches will give plants enough for a full 

 family supply of fine onions. Such a box should be 

 about four inches deep, and be filled with very rich, 

 clean soil, or with rich compost covered about an inch 

 deep with clean sand. Plants raised in flat, ready for 

 transplanting, are seen in Fig 4. 



Fig 4 — PLANTS READY FOR TRANSPLANTING 



The great majority of gardeners have no green- 

 house facilities. They must make use of hotbeds. For 

 operations during February or March, at least in a 

 northern climate, cold frames will not answer ; nor will 

 muslin covering. Common hotbed sash is the neces- 

 sary thing to cover hotbeds at this time. 



There are two ways of constructing a hotbed ; one 

 by digging a pit and filling this with a two-foot layer 

 of fresh and fermenting horse manure, as shown in 

 Fig 5 ; another by piling this manure layer directly 

 upon the ground, a frame corresponding with the size 

 and desired number of hotbed sashes to be placed in 



