130 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES 



back boards. The frame is usually made three feet from front to 

 rear (for convenience in working from the front, but can be of any 

 length desired). This frame is covered with glazed sash or cloth 

 frames or lath frames or first one and then another, according to 

 'the amount of protection and heat or of shade desirable. The ar- 

 rangement is called a "cold frame" because no provision is made for 

 bottom-heat. There are many modifications of the cold frame ; lath 

 or slat houses or lath covers for beds with raised edging boards, 

 etc., etc., are all on the cold frame principle, and in this climate, 

 where so little increment of heat is required and where shade is 

 often desirable, the arrangement serves an excellent purpose. 



The Hot-bed. The hot-bed consists of a box like that de- 

 scribed for a cold frame placed above a mass of fermenting manure 

 which supplies bottom heat. The old regulation style of hot-bed 

 was made by digging out a pit the size of the frame, throwing out 

 the soil to a depth of eighteen inches or two feet. Fill in the exca- 

 vation with a foot depth of fresh horse manure mixed with straw 

 as it comes from a stable where the animals are well bedded with 

 straw. Tread the manure down firmly ; put on the frame and cover 

 the manure with eight to ten inches of good light and rich sandy 

 loam that will not bake or crust over when sprinkled with water. 

 Bank up the outside of the frame with the same kind of manure 

 used inside, and cover with window sashes of the proper length to 

 reach across the bed and rest on the sides. The sashes should not 

 be too wide as it is desirable to uncover part of the bed at a time. 

 As soon as the manure begins to ferment and heat the bed is ready 

 for use. Sow seeds in rows from front to back of the bed, and 

 germination will be very rapid. On warm days the cover should 

 be lifted a little or partially or wholly removed, according to the 

 heat of the day and the activity of the bottom heat in the bed. 

 Water freely with water from which the chill has been removed. 



This old style of hot-bed is contrived to freely employ the heat 

 of the fermenting manure and to push plants during zero tempera- 

 tures in the outer air. Of course, where winter temperatures but 

 rarely fall to the freezing point, and where the winter day heat often 

 runs at shirt sleeves and sun-bonnet degrees, such a hot-bed is as 

 excessive in the garden as a feather-bed is in the house. For these 

 reasons, the horse manure is made less active by considerable ad- 

 mixture of chaff or dried leaves or other mollients. This mixture 

 is placed on the surface of the ground in a place protected from cold 



