8 



,*-,.- , A MANUAL OF 



stable manures has generally been the ac- 

 cepted means of accomplishing the desired 

 object. 



THE MANURE HOT-BED has been so fre- 

 quently described, and the best manner of 

 constructing it so fully dwelt upon by all 1 

 the principal agricultural journals, works on 

 gardening, and seed catalogues, which have 

 been freely scattered over the land, that we 

 deem a description of it altogether unneces- 

 sary in our present work, especially as we 

 think that the day of using manure for fuel 

 will soon be known only in the recollections 

 of the past. The inestimable value which we, 

 as tillers of the soil, long ago learned to 

 put upon manure for plant food, and the 

 cheapness with which the desired amount of 

 heat could be produced from the more natu- 

 ral article of fuel, coal, led us to experiment 

 in this direction, with the result of several 

 years ago abolishing our manure-beds and 

 depending entirely upon our FIRE HOT-BEDS 

 for producing winter headed lettuce and 

 vegetable plants for early spring use. In- 

 deed, our labors in this direction have given 

 us such unbounded satisfaction, and we find 

 that the use of such structures is so illy un- 



