AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 27 



wide and ten feet long to a uniform depth of eighteen inches ; 

 within this make a frame of thick plank, or slabs hewed to fit 

 close, and nailed firmly to locust or chestnut posts. These 

 posts should be three and a half feet long for the back, and two 

 and a half feet long for the front of the frame, thus allowing it 

 a slope of one foot, to which, of course, the ends must suit. Its 

 inside width, when completed, will be about five feet, and its 

 length about nine feet. Pack the earth lightly around it, tak- 

 ing care to keep the frame at right angles ; then, with a draw- 

 ing-knife and plane, finish the upper edges of the whole with a 

 smooth, even slope. Prepare two cross-bars or slides for the 

 sashes to run on, made of two strips of stout plank, three inches 

 in width, each having along its centre a thin strip of the same 

 width nailed firmly edgewise, to serve as a sash-guide ; nail a 

 corresponding strip on the outside of each end plank to serve a 

 similar purpose, the ends themselves serving as slides. Hav- 

 ing measured off the frame accurately into three divisions of 

 equal width in the clear, notch or dovetail the plank cross- 

 bars or slides into the frame flush with its back and front edges, 

 carefully preserving the proper width of the divisions, so that 

 each sash, when put on, will lie perfectly fair and snug in its 

 place. Immediately underneath each of the two cross-bars, and 

 fitting closely up to them, you may, if you please, set a rough 

 plank or board partition, thus dividing the pit into three sepa- 

 rate compartments. The packing of the earth around the frame 

 may now be more thoroughly done, and, as a protection against 

 some degree of cold, bank earth thickly around the pit up to 

 within an inch or two of the edge of the frame, treading or 

 beating it as you go to make it solid, and sloping the bank 

 carefully so as to shed water.- This done, fit on your sashes 

 properly, and cover them with board shutters or thick straw 

 mats (see p. 37), or both, and your pit is ready. 



As the pit is calculated to be a permanent appendage to the 

 garden, it is plain that brick or stone is greatly to be preferred 

 for making it. If laid up dry with common farm stone, and 

 well pointed or plastered, it will last a lifetime ; but in this 

 case, or if built of brick, it will require a frame or plates for the 

 sashes, which may be made of good three or four by six inch 



