HOT-BEDS. 25 



some of the plants by breaking the hearts. To guard 

 against the possibility of this, where sashes are removed 

 to use on other frames, it is well to have at hand 

 a supply of shutters, of the same size as the sashes. 



Cold-frames are extensively used about New-York City 

 for forcing lettuce, cucumbers, and parsley, and may be 

 used to advantage for producing cabbage, cauliflower, let- 

 tuce, and celery plants early in the spring, sweet-potato 

 plants later, herbs for transplanting, forcing beets, carrots, 

 and radishes, forwarding cucumbers, melons, squashes, and 

 lima beans for transplanting to the open ground, and har- 

 dening off tomato, pepper, and other plants, all of which 

 are duly noticed under their respective heads. 



HOT-BEDS. 



These differ from cold-frames mainly in being mostly 

 composed of partly fermented stable-manure, which gives 

 off great heat, and when properly worked and compactly 

 formed continues to do so for a long time, and this, with 

 the assistance of the sun, the heat of which is concentrated 

 by the glass of the sashes, enables us to force or hasten the 

 growth of many vegetables much in advance of the natural 

 seasons, and further aids us in growing such vegetables as 

 are natives of a tropical climate, by forwarding the plants, 

 and which on account of the shortness of our seasons could 

 not be successfully grown, if the sowing of the seeds of 

 such was delayed until the earth had become sufficiently 

 warmed to allow them to germinate. 



There are various ways of making a hot-bed, but I will 

 only describe the two leading methods. A stationary hot- 

 bed is made by digging a pit about two and a half feet 

 deep, boarding up the sides and ends to about one foot 

 above ground on the back and three inches on the front, 

 in width and length according to the size and number of 

 the sashes to be used, and furnished with slides, as in the 

 2 



