THE FORCING OF EOSES. 7 



of stones, or broken "brick, is placed in the bottom and 

 covered with eight inches of soil. A few of our most 

 successful growers secure bottom heat by running one 

 or more steam pipes lengthwise of the beds at about the 

 center of the layer of stones ; the heat distributes itself 

 through the bed, and is of marked advantage in wet, 

 dull weather, in drying out the surplus water and warm- 

 ing up the soil. Another favorite arrangement is to 

 have three beds, each five feet wide, and four walks, in a 

 house twenty-two feet wide. These beds have all of the 

 advantages of the old solid bed, with none of the disad- 

 vantages, and are equally well adapted to carnations, 

 violets, lettuce and other crops. The watering of the 

 plants by what is known as sub-irrigation has many ad- 

 vantages, and is treated in another chapter. 



PLANTING THE HOUSES. 



Before the beds are filled with soil, ample drainage 

 facilities should be provided, and if raised, wooden 

 benches are used there should be cracks of nearly one 

 inch between the bottom boards, which should prefer- 

 ably not be more than six inches wide. When tile bot- 

 toms are used the cracks can be somewhat smaller. To 

 prevent the soil from falling through the cracks, or 

 from filling up the openings between the stones in the 

 solid beds, it is well to first put down a layer of sods 

 with the grass «ide down, and upon these four or five 

 inches of the prepared soil for a raised bench, or seven 

 or eight for a solid bed, should be placed. This should 

 be leveled off and firmly packed down. 



The beds are now ready for planting, and this 

 should not be long delayed, as the thin layer of soil will 

 soon dry out and will be in an undesirable condition for 

 setting out the plants. The rows are generally twelve 

 inches apart lengthwise of the house, so that a bed will 

 hold as many rows as it is feet wide, and the plants are 



