FLORICULTURE 503 



dinary size should contain at least 45 square feet of ground surface, 

 say five feet wide by nine feet long. The sash or top covering should 

 slope toward the south to admit the sun's rays and to allow the water 

 from snows and rains to drain away readily. The frame should be 

 made of a size to accommodate the sash or the sash can be made to 

 any size desired and adapted to a frame of certain dimensions. At 

 any rate the edges of the sash should just overlap the frame all 

 around to secure closed joints. The slope of the sash should be made 

 to drop about two inches in every foot. Sometimes posts are driven 

 in the ground at the four corners and boards nailed to them, but this 

 is not the best means of construction. Posts are not needed. Corner 

 blocks are better, and they should not project below nor above the. 

 edges of the boards, but flush with the edges. Pieces of 2 by 4 scant- 

 ling make good corner blocks. The front board of the frame should 

 be 12 inches wide, the height of the frame in front when finished, 

 and if the frame is to be five feet wide the back should be 22 inches 

 high and the ends sloped to meet the top edges of both front and 

 back. Braces will be needed clear across the frame on the inside. 

 Two or three will answer, but they must be provided and properly 

 distributed to prevent crowding the frame out of alignment when the 

 banking of earth is thrown up on the outside, a protection necessary 

 to early planted beds. 



Sash. These can be purchased ready made, or any person 

 handy with tools can make them and in this way often save expense 

 and usually secure better construction. The ordinary ready made 

 hotbed sash has been found to be a flimsy article. The usual length 

 of ready made sash is six feet, which necessitates the construction of 

 beds about six feet wide. This width is very inconvenient for plant- 

 ing, weeding, thinning, watering, and finally in taking up the plants 

 for transplanting. Access to the bed is almost always difficult ex- 

 cepting at the front or lower side, and a reach of over five feet is too 

 great for convenience. A good sash can be made as follows : For con- 

 venience in figuring, assume the size of glass used to be 10 by 12 

 inches, although other sizes are admissible. There will be three rows 

 lengthwis^ of the slope, and each row will contain five lights. The 

 long way of the glass shall be in the direction of the slope when in 

 use. Two end pieces of wood, two side pieces, and two sash bars In- 

 termediate, running lengthwise, will be required. The intermediate 

 bars must support the center row of glass and the two inner edges of 

 the two outer rows of glass. To do this the corner edges of the upper 

 side of the sash bars must be rabbeted or cut out a quarter of an inch 

 wide and a quarter of an inch deep. The inside edges of the side bars 

 must be accordingly rabbeted to receive the glass and form their sup- 

 port. The side bars like the others should be an inch and a half in 

 thickness, but about two and one-half inches wide. Thus there are 

 grooves for three rows of glass. The end pieces should be of inch and 

 a quarter material and have the ends of the sash bars joined to them 

 by means of mortise or groove connections. In setting the glass a 

 quarter inch lap should be made over each other, as in laying shin- 

 gles, but a lap of at least a half an inch should be made over each end 



