CHAPTER XVII. 



DEVICES FOR FORCING, FORWARDING, AND 

 PROTECTING. 



Hot-beds How to Make and Manage Them Cold Frames Their 

 Construction and Arrangement The Cloche and its Uses Shields of 

 Calico and Paper Imitation Cloche Calico Screen Movable Shield 

 Straw Mats and Suggestions for Using Glass-covered Plant Pro- 

 tectorBox Plant Protector Glass-covered Trench Raised Beds 

 with South Slope Plan of Cropping the Beds Cheap Method of 

 Forcing in Pits. 



THE up-to-date gardener strives, by means of forcing or 

 the use of various protective appliances and devices, to 

 place supplies on the market in advance of the normal season, 

 and so secure better prices and larger profits than can be 

 expected from main crops produced under ordinary conditions. 

 Where there is a sufficient amount of capital at command, this 

 presents very little difficulty to the experienced man who, by a 

 judicious use of glass and heating apparatus in their various 

 forms, can practically command success. 



But the man in a humbler way of business, if he is not to be 

 left hopelessly in the rear, must also have some means for pro- 

 ducing conditions of warmth and shelter, whereby tender plants 

 can be raised and grown on until the season is far enough ad- 

 vanced, and the weather sufficiently genial, to permit them to be 

 set in the open ground with safety. Moreover, if he is alive to 

 the possibilities of the situation, he will utilize every warm and 

 sheltered position in his garden, and by the use of various 

 cheap but effective devices to protect and forward early crops 

 will to some extent neutralize, or even entirely overcome, the 

 disadvantages arising from lack of means. 



Some of the methods thus adopted are described and illus- 

 trated in the following chapter, and it is hoped that these 

 suggestions may be the means of still further developing this 

 interesting and profitable branch of intensive culture. 



