COLD FRAMES AND HOT-BEDS. 37 



manure and two-thirds of good garden soil. In a day or 

 two more the bed will be ready for sowing seeds in. The 

 preparation of the bed should be so timed as to have it 

 ready for use by the first of March. 



In this bed, during the first week in March, may be sown 

 seeds of cabbage, lettuce, peppers, egg plants and toma- 

 toes, and any others that may be needed for early plant- 

 ing. The seeds should be sown in shallow drills six or 

 eight inches apart, and covered with light soil, patting it 

 down gently with a piece of board. When they require 

 watering, it should be done with tepid water and given 

 from a watering pot with a very fine rose. 



After the seeds are sown, the frame should be protected 

 at night or in dull, cold weather by coverings of wooden 

 or straw shutters, or straw mats, so as to keep it at as 

 near an equable temperature as possible. This must not 

 be neglected, especially the nightly covering, until the first 

 week in May. The bed must be kept aired in the day-time 

 by raising or lowering the sashes whenever the thermom- 

 eter shows 75 degrees, but should not be allowed to go 

 below 68 degrees. Great attention must be paid to this, 

 for if kept too warm, the plants will be soft and drawn, or 

 perhaps scorched, and if too cool, will become stunted by 

 being checked in their growth. 



When the tomato, egg plant and pepper plants have 

 grown to be two or three inches high, as many as are 

 wanted should be transplanted, one each into three-inch 

 pots, and set back into the frame, watering them as soon 

 as potted, and shading them from the sun for three or four 

 days. Cabbage and lettuce plants may be pricked out 

 into a cold frame, and then watered and shaded as before. 

 They should be kept as warm as possible in the cold frame, 

 but be well aired in the middle of bright, sunny days, and 



