144 KITCHEN-GARDENING. 



should afterwards be attended to, as directed for Broccoli and 

 Cauliflower. 



The depth of heating materials must be regulated by the 

 season of the year at which the work is commenced, and also 

 to the purposes for which the hotbeds are intended. Beds used 

 for the purpose of raising half-hardy plants, or for procuring 

 seedling-plants late in the spring, may be made in the manner 

 recommended for the common hotbed ; but if substantial heat 

 is required to be kept up, the beds must be so contrived as to 

 admit of linings as the heat decreases ; and the dung should 

 undergo a regular process of preparation, according to the use 

 it is intended for. Compost heaps should also be provided, in 

 order to furnish suitable mould to the different species of 

 plants ; for this purpose, all the old hotbed dung and mould, 

 leaves, tan, turf, sand, and other light manures and decayed 

 animal dung, should be collected together. 



In some cases, when a slight hotbed is recommended for 

 forwarding hardy plants, if it should happen that a seedling 

 Cucumber-bed be at liberty, it may answer every purpose for 

 Radishes, Lettuce, or other hardy plants ; or such a bed may 

 be spawned for Mushrooms, if required. 



If the forcing be commenced before the coldest of the winter 

 is past, great precaution must be used, lest the plants be in- 

 jured by cold cutting winds, or destroyed by heat for want of 

 air. To prevent the former accident, warm dung should be 

 placed around the frames, and the sashes covered with mats 

 and boards every night. If full air cannot be admitted in the 

 daytime, the sashes must be slidden down to let off the steam ; 

 at the same time mats may be laid over the aperture, to pre- 

 vent cold air entering to the plants. 



If the bottom heat in a bed be too violent, which is some- 

 times the case, means must be used to decrease it. This is 

 generally effected by making holes in the bed with a stake 

 sharpened at the end, or with a crowbar ; and filling the holes 

 with water until the heat is sufficiently reduced. In lining 

 hotbeds, if the heat is reduced in the body of the beds, holes 



