88 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



and I have yet to see the small gieen-house that was really a 

 success in the production of vegetables. In connection with 

 sash, a small house may be all right. The number of sash 

 that the gardener can use to advantage depends as much on 

 the amount of fresh manure that he can get at a reasonable 

 price — which we should consider about four dollars per 

 cord, delivered — as anything. The cost of starting a hot- 

 bed may be considered about jRve dollars per sash. While 

 this would have put up a very good run a year ago, it is 

 doubtful whether at the present time it could be done for that 

 price. It would include fence, plank, sash, mats and shut- 

 ters. The sash and shutters should be well painted. 



Small gardeners are very apt to place a frame for their 

 hot-beds on the south side of some building or wall, and 

 leave it there for a permanent bed ; but this is not practised 

 by the larger users of sash, and has many disadvantages. 

 The gardener generally sets his hot-beds in the open field. 

 He first puts up a board fence, six or seven feet high, facing 

 the south, and slanting back some eighteen or twenty inches 

 at the top. The posts should be five or six inches through 

 at the top, and set a good three feet in the ground. We 

 hold the boards to the posts by two coach screws to each 

 post. These screws pass through narrow cleats with a large 

 washer between the cleat and the screw-head. The boards 

 are taken down in summer and used to blanch early celery. 

 We mark every board before it is taken down, and then, by 

 using each fence by itself, there is very little trouble in put- 

 ting it up again. We leave the cleats screwed to the posts, 

 and seldom have to bore a new hole. 



We set our plank farther from the fence than many, as we 

 wish to have plenty of room to walk between the bed and 

 our mats, when they are rolled. We set a line three feet or 

 a little more from the bottom of the fence, and from twelve 

 to fifteen inches above the ground, and, if possible, draw it 

 tight, so as to give the bed as nearly an even fall as possible, 

 if the land is not level, — and it is not well to have it exactly 

 level, as the water does not work off so well, but we do not 

 like to have it fall too much. If this line is drawn tight, 

 and stakes put in often enough to prevent it from sagging, 

 all that it is necessary to do is to set a line of plank the 



