44 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. 



straight. Then drop in your Cabbage seeds along 

 the drills, very thin ; but, twenty seeds, perhaps in 

 an inch ; for, some will not grow, and some may 

 be pulled up when they appear. It is better to have 

 rather too many than too few. . When you have 

 dropped in your seeds all over the bed, and distin- 

 guished the several sorts of Cabbages by names, or 

 numbers, written on a bit of paper, and put into 

 the cleft of a little stick, stuck in the ground ; then 

 cover all the seeds over neatly and smoothly. Put 

 on the lights ; and look upon your spring work as 

 happily begun. 



79. But, now we come to the management of a 

 hot-bed. And, observe, that the main principle is, 

 always to give as much air as the plants will en- 

 dure. I have always observed, that the great and 

 prevalent error is, an endeavour to obtain, by exclu- 

 sion of air, something to make up for the want of 

 bottom heat. It is not thus that nature operates. 

 She gives the air as well as the heat ; and, without 

 the former she gives nothing. I suppose the hot- 

 bed, made as above, to be about four feet high, 

 when just finished. It will sink as it heats ; and 

 will, at last, come to about a foot and a half. Its 

 heat will gradually diminish ; but, it will give a 

 great heat for about six weeks ; and some heat for 

 four months. It is this bottom heat that makes 

 things grow. The sun is often hot in May ; but, 

 it is not till the earth is warm that vegetation ad- 

 vances with rapidity. 



80. Having secured the bottom, heat, make free 

 with the air. Even before the seeds begin to ap- 

 pear, give air to the bed e 7ery day, unless it be very 

 cold weather indeed. The usual way of giving air 

 is by bits of thick board, cut in the shape of a tri- 

 angle, or. rather, like a wedge, broad at one end, 



