Manure Hot-Beds. — 69 



flats hold one dozen plants each, or of various sizes and contain- 

 ing various quantities as may be desired by the purchaser. 

 More and more ventilation is given as the season advances, and 

 the plants must be perfectly hardened off by exposure, transfer 

 to open cold frames or otherwise, before they can be safely 

 placed into the open ground. This is a matter of greater 

 importance than most people imagine. Millions of early started 

 and well-grown plants are annually set out, that in transplanting 

 before they have been properly accustomed to the hardships of 

 outdoor life, receive a check from which they do not recover soon 

 enough to prevent much later plants, or even natural seedlings, 

 from getting ahead of them, and producing fruit much the earliest. 

 The proper hardeningoff of plants is one of the secrets of success, 

 and perhaps a leading one, in the production of early crops of 

 garden fruits. 



Soil for Flats. — The most important item of annual 

 expense connected with running manure hot-beds is the manure 

 used for fuel. But, after all, this costs nothing in reality, since it 

 loses very little fertilizing substance by the process of slow com- 

 bustion in the hot-bed, and when dug out next fall, or in the 

 spring following, is worth fully as much to the gardener as when 

 first put in, if not more. It went into the pit — a raw and 

 unreliable manure ; it comes out — a fine, rich compost that can 

 be used with advantage for feeding any of our garden crops, or 

 may be compounded with sand, muck, loam, etc., thus giving 

 us the very best soil for forcing vegetables under glass. I must 

 warn, however, against the only too common practice of making 

 the soil for flats, in which vegetable plants are grown, excessively 

 rich. Over-fertile soil encourages sappy, succulent, tender growth, 

 which is not wanted, because little able to endure the hardships 

 of transplanting and outdoor life. We prefer a nice fibrous loam 

 of medium fertility, such as you can procure by piling up sods 

 from a rich old pasture, or from fence corners, for a sufficient 

 length of time to have them well rotted and thoroughly fined. 

 It may take a year, and repeated turning and spading over, to 

 get these sods in the desired shape, but the fibrous loam thus 

 obtained is, for the purposes of plant raising, well worth all the 

 trouble it causes to get it. If additional plant foods are thought 

 to be necessary, 10 or 15 pounds of superphosphate (dissolved 

 bone) and a few bucketfuls of unleached wood-ashes, or a larger 

 quantity of leached ashes, may be added to each load of com- 

 post without fear. Strong, stocky growth of plants is and must 

 be our aim, and the sod loam will be sure to give it. 



In forcing succulent vegetables for the table, such as lettuce, 

 radishes, onions, rhubarb, etc., we want the bed soil very rich. 

 The mixture already spoken of comes handy. Early in the 



