Ar-tl '■ 



^^"i'lp^ 



CONDUCTED BY ISAAC HILL. 



' Those who heor in the harth are the choscv people of God, whose treasts he has made hj3 pf.clliau depoiite fob iubstantial and genuine virtite." — Jejcrson, 



VOLUME VI. 



CONCORD, N. H. NOVEMBER 30, 1844. 



NUMBER n. 



THE FAUMKR^S MONTII£iY VISITOR, 



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COBBETT ON GARDENING. 



CHAPTER II. 



ON THE MAKING AND MANAGING OP UOT-BK))S AND 

 GRF.EN-HOnSES. 



HOTBEDS. 



C3. I am aliout to liiy down imiIcs for peisoiis 

 who can aftbril to have cucumhers in March. This 

 anioimts to soniethiiig little short of folly it) Etifr- 

 laiiil : in America it woiiM ho something worse. 

 But hot-herl.<, as thiii;;s of real use, are more ne- 

 cessary in Atnerica than England; hecause, in 

 the forujer country, the winter will not suffer to 

 exist in the open air many plants which are wan- 

 ted to start with the wariri snn, and which plants 

 tlie winter uM suffer to e.\i.st in the open air in 

 England. The American spring bears no resem- 

 blance to that of England, wliicli conies on, by 

 degrees, from the end of February to the begin- 

 ning of June ; while ihe American sjiring can- 

 not be said to be of a fortnight's duration. There 

 is, in liict, no spring ; there is a winter, a sum- 

 mer, and an iiuttwrin, but no spring; and none 

 woidd ever have been thonght of, if the word \ii\ii 

 tiot come frain Europe along with many others 

 equally inapplicable. 



C4. This sudden transition from a winter which 

 not only puts a total sto]) to, but effaces all traces 

 of, vegetation, to a summer, which, in an instant, 

 creates swarms of insects, or warms them into 

 life, sets the sap iii rapid niolioii, and in six days 

 turns a brown rye-field into a sheet of the gayest 

 verdure ; this sudden transition presents the 

 gardener, or the farmer, with ground well chast- 

 ened by the fro^t, smoking with lernientation, and 

 with a sun ready to push fiirward every ;rfa»/ ; — 

 but, alas! he has no^toi/s.' I know th;it there 

 are persons « ho do preserve lettuce, cabbage, 

 and other plants, during the winter, and that there 

 are jiersons who rear them on hot-beds in the 

 spring ; but what I am at, is to render the work 

 easy to farmiis in particular, not only as the 

 means of fupplying their tables, but tlie stalls of 

 their cattle and the yards of their sheep and pigs. 

 In the sunnncr (a cruelly dry one) of 1819, who, 

 within many miles of my house in Long Island, 

 had a loaved cabbage, except myself? Duj ing 

 June, J\dy, and Angtist, 1 allowed lifteen a day 

 for my own family; 1 gave ten a day to one 

 neighbor; to others J gave about five hundred 

 perhaps, first and last ; and the (ilants were all 

 raised in one single light, four feel ii/ tliree ami a 

 half, on a hot-bed made on the 19th of March. — 

 The hot-bed had six lights altogether, and was 



about twenty feet long; but the part appropriated 

 to these cabbages was only ibur fi;et by three and 

 a half The plants came out of this bed on the 

 20lh of April, and were planted three inches apart 

 on another bed, wilhout glass, but covered at 

 night with a cloth. On the ^O/Zt o/" Jl/u^, they 

 were jilanted nut in the open ground ; and on the 

 \7lh of June v\e began to eat them. All liiese 

 cabbages. Early Dwarfs, Early Yorks, Sugar 

 Loaves, and Balkrsm, coming in one sort after 

 the other, amounting to about _/bu/' Ihousand in 

 'miiidier, stood, when planted out, n|ioii lather 

 \css l\iiM thirty rods of ground ; and the earliest 

 sorts, while wo were using them so liberally, 

 were selling in New York market a,t from six to 

 four pence apiece. 



05. 'Vo preserve, during teinler, sucli ii number 

 of plants, or, indeed, «(()/ number, however small, 

 is a uork ol'greanhliiculty, and is merely f/irt?!ce- 

 vvork after all. Besides, litll-sown plants are not 

 so good as spiing-sown. They become stunted; 

 and they very fre(|uently go off' to seed, instead of 

 producing Maws. Howevei', it is not my business 

 to treat here of cuUivaiion : I am here to speak 

 of the making and managing of hol-beds. This 

 must, of course, include a description of the u'oorf 

 ami glass, when formed into yra/Hcs and liglds. — 

 But, first of all, I must treat of the making of the 

 bed. 



60. The materials of which the bed is to be 

 composed, and the manner of preparing those 

 materials, are fiisl to be spoken of 



07. Dung ol' horses, cattle, sheep, or Jjigi^, is 

 used to I lake the bed of. Either may be made to 

 do, wilh a greater or less degree of care and trou- 

 ble ; but the best pos.«ible thing is dung from the 

 stable, taken away before it has been rotted, .-hort 

 and long promiscuously, but rather long than 

 short. If there be a large prop'orlion of short, it 

 may have any litter added to it; any broken straw 

 ov hay or corn stalks, in order to make a due mix- 

 ture of long and short. 



()8. This chuosing of the materials being a ve- 

 ry important point, I shall, in order to make my 

 instructions clear, suppose a case, and such a case 

 as will be very clear to every American firmer. 



09. By the month of March he lias always a 

 heap oidung, \\liicli lia>:, from time to lime, been 

 thrown out of his stable, during the winter and 

 fall. This is some long, and some short. Let the 

 whole of this (supposing tliere be three horses 

 kept) be taken, and, in addition, a preliy good 

 un:;oii load of long stained stuff from the cow- 

 yard or sheep-yard. Toss it down in a heap, near 

 where you are going to make the bed. Then be- 

 gin on one side of it, and taks lln? stuff and be- 

 gin making a fresh heap of it. Shake every forkfull 

 well to pieces, and ni:x well the long with the 

 sliorl ; and thus go on, till you have the whole in 

 a round heap rising to a point. 



70. The second day after thin heap is made it 

 will begin to send ibrlli steam. Let it remain three 

 da)s in this state; that is to say, yoHC clear days 

 alter the day of making the heap. Then turn ihc 

 heap back again ; skaki7ig all well to pieces, as be- 

 tore, and bringing to the inside that part of the 

 stulf which v\as before on the outside of the heap. 

 Let it remain now three clear days after the day 

 of turning. Then turn it again ; shaking ivcll to 

 pieces, as before, and bringing again the outside 

 stufl' to the inside. When it has remained ((co 

 clear days in this state, it is fit to make the bed 

 with. 



71. In the making the bed you will proceed as 

 directed below; but I must first describe the 



frame anil the ligtds. Were 1 speaking to persons 

 living in a coiiiilry where there is no such thing 

 as a liot-lied frame, I should be obliged to enter 

 into a detailed mechanical description. But as 

 frames and lights are to be seen in almost every 

 considerable town in America; and as I have 

 known very liiw American tiirmers who are not 

 able to make both with their own hands, without 



any help from either carpenter or glazier, it will 

 be necessary merely for me to say, that the frame 

 is of the best shape when it is eighteen inches 

 deep at the back, and nine inches deep at ihefront. 

 This gives slope enough, ;md especially in a coun- 

 try where there is so little raiuy weather. The 

 frame is the wood work, on which the lights, or 

 glass work, are l.iid. There needs no more than 

 a good look at a thing of this sort to know how to 

 make it, or to order it to be made. And as it is 

 useless to make a hot-bed without having the 

 frame and the lights ready, I shall su|)pose them 

 to be prepared. I suppose a three-light frame, 

 four feet wide and nine feet long, which, of course, 

 will make every \\^\a three feet ividc nud four long; 

 because the long-way of the light fits, of course, 

 the cross-way of the frame. 



72. Now, then, to the work of making the bed. 

 The front of the bed is, of course, to be fidl south, 

 so that 'he noon sun may come right upon the 

 glass. The length and width of the bed must 

 be those of the frame. Theielbre, take the frame 

 itself, and place it an the spot ivhich you mean the 

 bed to stand on. See that you have it rightly 

 placed; and then, with a pointed stick, make a 

 niai'k ill the ground all round the outside of the 

 frame. Then lake the frame away. Then take 

 some sharp-pointed straight stakes, and drive 

 Ihein in thegrounj, at eacit corner of this marked- 

 out place lor the bed, and one or two on the back 

 and on the front side. Let these be about Ibur 

 feet higli. They are to be your guides in. build- 

 ing the bed ; and lliey ought, therefore, to be ve- 

 ry straiglit, and to be placed perfectly upright. — 

 Each slake may he placed about an inch further 

 Qul than the mark on the ground, for fear of hav- 

 ing the bed too narrow; though, observe, the bed 

 should he as nearly the same length and breadth 

 us the frame as it is pralicable to make it. 



73. In order to liegiii the work well, it is a ve- 

 ry good way to put souie boards on their edges, 

 on the ground, at the ends and sides, on the in- 

 sides of the stakes ; so as to have a .sort of open 

 box to begin lo make the biJ in. The eye of a 

 gardener scorns such assistance ; but it is very 

 useful to persons unused to the work. 



74. Thus, all being pre])ared, you begin ma/nng- 

 the bed. Begin taking the dung on the side of 

 your iieap nearest to the spot where you are 

 building tlie bed. Keep taking up clean to the 

 ground. Have shovel as well as fork. Take long 

 and short fairly, and mix them well as you put 

 them ill. Shake the stuff in such a way as not 

 to siifer any lumps. Shake every straw tioin ev- 

 ery other straw. Let the bed rise in all parts to- 

 gether as nearly as possible. Tli.-it is to say, do 

 not put much in one part at one time. Beat the 

 whole down with the fork asyau proceed. When 

 you have shaken on dung lo the thickness of four 

 or five inches, beat all over well again ; and so 

 on, till the work bo finislied. But mind : you 

 must lie very careful to keep the edges of the 

 bed well beaten; or el.se they will be more hol- 

 low, and will sink more than the rest, and then 

 the earth on the bed will crack in the middle.— 

 Beat them well ; keep them Kell iqi as you pro- 

 ceed ; beat well the siiles of the bed, as it goes 

 on rising. Comb the sides Ireqneutly down with 

 the spanes of the Ibrk. And, in short, make the 

 sides upright, and smooth and ne.it as ti wall. — 

 As you proceed, measure the lieight fre<iucntly, 

 in the difterent ptirts of the bed, lo see that you 

 are keeping the height every where the same. At 

 last, shovel and sweep npall theshort earthty stuff 

 round the bed and where your dung-heap was, 

 and lay it very smoothly on the top of the bed ; 

 and make all as smooth and as level as a die with 

 the back of your shovel. 



75. Thus the bed is made. Tlien put on the 

 frame, and fix it nicely. Then put the lights up- 

 on the frame. If you finish your bed by noon, 

 the heat will begin io rise by the next inoruing; 

 and by the nooii of the second day after the bed 



