AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 31 



regularly, but not heavily, toward evening, with water that has 

 been warmed in the sun or by the fire say to the temperature 

 of fresh-drawn milk and cover the sashes at night with shut- 

 ters, and bass or straw mats, or other sufficient covering. 



Give air abundantly, but never suddenly, throughout the time 

 your plants remain in the bed, uncovering them entirely during 

 the day and in mild nights for a week or ten days before they 

 are set out. If you pot your plants, or transfer them to a sec- 

 ond hot bed, the treatment should be the same. The ordinary 

 time for making hot beds near New York is from the middle 

 of February to the middle of March ; but the proper time can 

 be calculated any where by making the hot bed from six to 

 eight weeks before the plants are needed to set out. 



CISTERN. 



Wherever it is found necessary or desirable to have the ap- 

 pendages to the garden complete within itself, a cistern of such 

 size as may be deemed suitable should be constructed in the 

 ordinary manner, to receive the water from the garden-house 

 or any neighboring out-building. Its dimensions may be six 

 feet deep and five feet diameter, or nearly 900 gallons capacity ; 

 or eight feet deep and six feet diameter, which will hold about 

 1600 gallons ; or larger if preferred. A cheap and yet durable 

 cistern may be made with the aid of an ordinary workman by 

 digging a hole of the necessary size, covering the whole bottom 

 with a thick layer of small stones, filled in, or rather mixed, 

 with hydraulic mortar, prepared for use in the ordinary man- 

 ner that is, allowing two barrels of sand to each barrel of 

 first-rate cement, and packing them solidly with a rammer. 

 Upon the floor thus prepared set a rough plank frame, such as 

 is often used in well-digging to prevent caving in, but leaving 

 a space sufficient for the cistern- walls between the frame and 

 the surrounding earth, and brace the frame thoroughly on the 

 inside. 



Having provided a supply of rough stone, such as are com- 

 monly gathered by hand from the lots or road sides, proceed to 

 fill up the wall -space around the frame with them in regular 

 layers, mixed, like the bottom, with hydraulic mortar, and 



