180 Ofr HOT feEDS. SECT. XT11. 



they may have neither more or less than is necessary 

 to promote a regular vegetation, not a hasty one. 



Two errors are common in the use of hot beds, 

 sowing or placing in the same bed things of a very 

 different nature, as to the climate they grow best in, 

 and forcing with too much heat even the tenderest. 

 Though it may not answer our often too hasty views, 

 the heat of a bed had better be slack than otherwise. 

 A strong hot bed, that ought (at least) to be made a 

 fortnight before it is used, is sometimes furnished by 

 impatience in a few days, and various ill conse- 

 quences follow its after heat, which naturally frustrate 

 expectation. 



The place where hot beds are worked should be 

 open to the full sun, catching it as early as possible 

 in the morning, and having it as long as can be in the 

 evening ; and if not naturally sheltered, it should be 

 screened from the north and north east winds by a 

 boarded fence, or rather one of weeds, as from a 

 solid fence the wind reverberates ; but straw, or flake 

 hurdles, set endwise, may do. A screen of some 

 sort, (and a close clipt hedge is as good as any) not 

 only protects the inclosure from the harsher w inds, 

 and confines the warm air, but keeps a rather un- 

 sightly work from view, and straws from blowing 

 about, the litter of which is so disagreeable. In 

 lafge gardens, however, they have detached grounds 

 for the work of hot beds, where such litter is of no 

 consequence. 



Working of the dung is necessary previous to the 

 making a hot bed ; i. e. it should be thrown together 

 ii an heap, in a conical form ; and w hen it has taken 

 a thorough heat, and has been smoaking or sweating 

 for two or three days, it should be turned over, mov- 

 ing the outside in, or mixing the colder parts with the 

 hot. When it has taken heat again for two or three 

 days, give it a sscoiid turn as before, and having lain 



