STARTING PLANTS IN THE HOUSE OR HOT-BED. 25 

 MAKING THE HOT-BED. 



Whether plants are or are not started in boxes in the 

 house, a hot-bed will be found very useful. If possible 

 this should be placed where a hedge, a fence, or building 

 breaks the force of the wind, admitting at the same 

 time the full rays of the sun. A large quantity of 

 manure is not necessary. 



The hot-bed should be covered with five or six inches 

 of light, well prepared soil, and moss or leaf-mould, or 

 dryed and sifted muck, or a compost of rotted sods, etc., 

 as previously described. There are two methods of 

 making a hot-bed. One is to stack fermenting manure 

 on the surface, taking care to build it up regularly 

 and solidly, distributing the long and short manure 

 evenly. Add the manure in layers of about six inches, 

 beating each one down with the fork. The pile should 

 be two or two and a half feet high, with square solid 

 sides, and should be two feet wider and longer than the 

 frame of the hot-bed, as the center is hotter than the out- 

 side, which is exposed to the cold air. Another method, 

 and one economical of manure, is to dig a pit two feet 

 wider and longer than the frame. The manure is care- 

 fully placed in this excavation, being trodden down even- 

 ly and solidly. The management of the hot-bed requires 

 some experience, especially in regard to ventilation and 

 the degree of heat needed by different classes of plants. 

 Cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, radishes and celery require 

 only a moderate degree of heat, while cucumbers, egg- 

 plant and peppers delight in a soil as warm as your 

 hand, and an atmosphere during the day warmer and 

 more moist then the hottest room. Tomatoes and such 

 flower seeds as phlox, petunia, verbena and aster need 

 a warmer soil than the cabbage, but not so hot as the cu- 

 cumber. Cucumbers and plants requiring the strongest 

 heat should be placed in the center of the bed, while the 

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