188 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



usually set slautiug about oue foot from the perpeudicular, so that 

 the mats, shutters, or sashes may be leaned up against the feuce^ 

 when working the bed, without danger of being easily blown down 

 by the wind. The land south of the fence is enriched with a good 

 dressing of fine manure or chemical fertilizers ; then plowed and 

 harrowed till thoroughly fine, and graded so that the surface shall 

 slope a little from the fence, and be nearly level from end to end 

 of the bed. The planks which are to form the sides of the frame 

 are then put in place ; the plank for the north side being of two- 

 inch by twelve-inch pine, spruce, or cypress ; the plank for the 

 south side two-inch by ten-inch stock. The north plank is set two 

 feet from the fence, the planks being held in place by stakes oue 

 inch by three inches, driven into the ground with a heavy maul, 

 upon the outside of the plank, and nailed to the plank. The 

 plank on the south side of the bed must be set exactly six feet — 

 outside measure — from the wider one on the north side, and 

 carefully adjusted so that its upper edge shall be about four or five 

 inches lower than that of the north side, which will give sufficient 

 pitch to the glass. 



The frame will need braces across the bed once in about ten 

 feet to keep the planks from springing. The earth should be 

 banked against the outside of the planks to withiu about five 

 inches of the top. Before the ground freezes much, the whole 

 should be covered with straw, eel-grass, or coarse manure ta 

 protect the inside from freezing till such time as the bed is 

 required for use, which is usually at a season when everything 

 outside is frozen up pretty solid. Sometimes when the bed is to 

 be used early in the winter it is simply protected by placing the 

 glass and shutters over it. Whenever it is desired to work the 

 bed, the covering is stripped off, and the loam thrown out to a 

 sufHcieut depth to admit the "heat" with its covering of loam, and 

 still leave room for the plants under the glass. The nature of the 

 plants to be grown, and the season of the year when it is to be 

 done, will regulate the depth to whicli the bed must be dug out. 

 For early winter work, and for cucumbers, a strong heat of from 

 twelve to fourteen inches of hot dung will be needed, covered with 

 six or eight inches of loam, and this will require the pit to be dug 

 out about two feet or two and a half feet below the top of the 

 frame. For later in the season a "heat" of from six to eight 

 inches, will usually be found quite enough. When beds are care- 



