|4 THE KITCHEN GARDEN [Jaw. 



sit a necessary quantity of proper earth, under some cover as above, 

 either the beginning of winter, or at least a fortnight or three or 

 lour weeks previous to making the hot-bed, in order to have it in 

 the dry, mellow state above mentioned, ready for immediate use 

 when wanted. 



Three or four days after the bed is made, prepare to earth it; 

 previously observing, if it has settled unequally, to take off the 

 frame and glasses, and level any inequalities; make the surface 

 smooth, put on the frame again, and then lay therein as much of 

 the above mentioned earth as will cover the whole top surface of 

 the bed, about three or four inches thick, then fill two, three, or 

 more middling smallish garden-pots with more of the aforesaid rich 

 earth, place them within the frame on the hot-bed, put on the glass 

 or glasses, and continue them till the earth in the pots is warm; 

 and when that is effected, sow the seeds in the pots, both of cucum- 

 bers and melons, each separately, more or less in each pot, accord- 

 ing to the quantity of plants required; but generally considerably 

 more of cucumbers than of melons at this season, covering in the 

 seeds near half an inch deep with the same earth. 



This done, place the pots towards the middle of the bed, plunging 

 the bottom part a little into the earth, drawing some of the same up 

 round each pot at the same time; or in two or three days after, may 

 sow a few seeds in the earth of the bed, to have a chance both ways; 

 but by sowing in pots, if the beds should heat too violently, as is 

 sometimes unavoidably the case, the pots can be readily drawn up 

 more or less, out of danger of burning the earth, &c. therein; and 

 thus, the sowing in pots in a new made hot-bed in full heat may 

 prove of greater advantage than sowing in the earth of the bed, with 

 regard to more probable safety from burning. 



After sowing the seeds, put on the lights or glasses close; but 

 when the steam from the heat of the bed rises copiously, give it 

 vent by raising one corner of the upper ends of the lights, half an 

 inch or an inch, which is also necessary in order to prevent any 

 burning tendency from the great heat of the bed in its early state. 



Continue now to cover the glasses of the hot-bed every evening, 

 about an hour before sun-setting, if mild weather, but earlier in pro- 

 portion to its severity, with garden mats; and uncover them every 

 morning, not sooner than between eight and nine o'clock, at this 

 season; and observe, in covering up in the evening, that as the bed 

 will at first have a Btrong heat and steam within the frame, it may 

 be advisable to cover only a single mat thick for the first three or 

 four nights, as a thicker covering in the early state of the bed might 

 be apt to occasion a too violent internal heat and steam of a burn- 

 ing nature; but as the great heat decreases, augment the covering, 

 being careful not to suiter the ends of the mats to hang down con- 

 siderablj below tin- frame, over the sides of the bed, except in severe 

 weather, which would draw up a hurtful strong steam from the 

 diint:, as well as confine the steam ami heat too much, and keep the 

 bed too Btiflingly close from the external air, which Mould weaken 

 the germination or sprouting of the seed, and the plants would come 

 up weak ami of a sickly yellowish hue: observe, therefore, these 



