Colfcframe 37 



width of the hotbed, to strips of wood the length 

 of the bed. The lath should be set its own width 

 apart, and the nails, of which there should be two in 

 each end, clinched on the under side. Such screens 

 are a necessary part of the hotbed, and will last for 

 years. 



Before transplanting to the open ground these 

 screens should be removed entirely and the plants left 

 exposed to the weather for a few days to harden. 

 Screens of chicken netting may be substituted, if pro- 

 tection from cats, dogs or chickens is needed. If, in 

 the early stages of the hotbed, drops of moisture 

 gather on the glass, the soil is too wet and the sash 

 must be raised to allow the surplus moisture to pass 

 off, avoiding always a cold draught across the bed. 



The cold-frame is simply a frame of boards fitted 

 with sash and placed over a prepared bed of earth. 

 As the bed will be raised slightly above the surface 

 of the soil, the frame should be set over it, shutting 

 out the cold from the sides as well as the top. A cov- 

 ered bed, prepared without heating material, is a cold- 

 frame ; and one in which the heating material is spent 

 is often used as a cold-frame after it has served its 

 purpose as a hotbed earlier in the season, for growing 

 Gloxinias and rooting cuttings during the summer, and 

 in August for sowing Pansy seed for the next sum- 

 mer's blooming. Cold-frames are useful to protect 

 beds of such tender perennials as Tea-roses, Pansies, 

 Canterbury-bells, Foxgloves and Violets. Violets 



