38 COLD FRAMES AND HOT-BEDS. 



will make nice, stocky plants for setting out from the mid- 

 dle of April to the first of May. Those wintered over in a 

 cold frame, however, make the best plants. Tomatoes, egg 

 plants and peppers must be kept in the hot-bed frame 

 until the middle of May, gradually increasing the airing to 

 keep the plants stocky. 



When it is desired to raise sweet potato plants, the 

 making of the hot-bed should be so timed as to have it 

 ready for use by the middle of April. A compost of sand 

 and leaf mould must be made and laid on the hot-bed six 

 inches deep. The tubers are to be laid closely together on 

 this, and a thickness of two inches of the compost laid 

 evenly over them. Withhold watering them until they 

 begin to grow. They will furnish shoots for planting out 

 in five or six weeks after starting. 



The ground, where a cold frame is to be placed in the 

 spring, should be, the previous autumn, covered up with 

 manure, leaves or similar materials, to keep the ground 

 from freezing. Before setting the frame over it, it should 

 be well spaded and made as fine as possible before setting 

 out the plants, so that they may take root speedily after 

 being transplanted into it. 



For covering the sashes, shutters made of three-quarter 

 inch boards should be made the size of the sashes. Or 

 shutters may be made by making a frame of furring strips, 

 set on edge, nailing lathes across it ten or twelve inches 

 apart on the under side, filling it up with straw or salt hay, 

 and then nailing a similar set of lathes on the upper side. 

 When shutters made in either of these ways are used, strips 

 of old carpet or canvas should be laid along the upper and 

 lower ends of the sashes, of sufficient width to hang over 

 the back and front of the frame, so as to cover the joint 

 where the top and bottom rail ^of the sashes rest on the 



