240 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



be by tramping on strips of board laid on the manure. To 

 tramp it with the feet would pack it too much and unevenly, 

 but by taking strips of board a foot wide and of such length 

 that they can be used the narrow way of the bed, and placing 

 one before the other you can soon press the manure solid and 

 have it uniform throughout. The bed should be prepared 

 about one month before the plants will be needed and this time 

 will vary, of course, in different latitudes. Here in Southern 

 Ohio we start our beds about the middle of April, as we find 

 the middle of May as early as it is profitable to set out the 

 plants, and from that till the middle of June is seasonable. 



You do not need so great a depth of manure for a sweet 

 potato bed as for an early hot-bed, which must endure greater 

 changes of temperature ; and if the manure is hot and in good 

 condition, one foot after it is packed is sufficient. Then lift your 

 frame on to the manure and bank up around the outside of it with 

 the same kind of manure to the top of the frame ; and it is a 

 good plan, both to protect it from cold winds and for the sake of 

 cleanliness, to cover this outside manure with boards. Cheap 

 waste lumber, cut in short pieces and leaned up endwise, is as 

 good as any. If your hot-beds are in a small yard with a tight 

 board fence around it, this protection is not absolutely necessary, 

 but will be found neat and convenient. I like this plan of 

 making the manure bed two feet larger each way than the 

 frame much better than making a deep frame and putting the 

 manure into it, for the latter plan takes much more lumber, and 

 the outer part of the bed is almost sure to be cold, while with 

 this extra width of bed and banking up it is easy to have it 

 uniform in temperature throughout. 



After the frame is set on the bed we shake in enough ma- 

 nure to make four inches more after it is packed by tramping 

 on the boards as before. We then fill the frame nearly full of 

 good mellow earth. 



The best soil for this purpose is well rotted leaf mold 

 from the woods, and it should be not less than seven inches 

 deep. When complete cover the bed with straw to the depth 

 of eight or ten inches, and to enable you to handle the straw 



