February, 1915 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



37 



I 



Possibilities of the Hotbed 



G:o. Baldwin, Toronto, Ont. 



The location for the hotbed should be 

 facing south and shielded from the 

 north by a fence or hedge. Make your 

 frame of two-inch plank and of such a 

 size as will enable you to use sash six 

 feet long by three feet wide. Make your 

 beds according to the number of sashes 

 required. 



Procure a sufficient quantity of fresh 

 horse manure and pile it in a heap. When 

 it starts to heat, turn it over into simi- 

 lar heaps twice in six days. Four days 

 after the last turning it should be ready 

 for use. Level it off to a depth of 

 eighteen inches and place the frame on 

 top. Be sure to tramp the manure down 

 well in layers, then put the sash on, and 

 leave it for three days. At the end of 

 that time tramp the manure down again 

 and put six inches of fairly good soil on 

 it, having the top of the soil not more 

 than six inches from the under side of 

 the sashes, sloping the whole six inches 

 in six feet, so that the rain will shed off. 



In four or five days the bed will be 

 ready for the seeds. Make sure that 

 the heat is not over eighty degrees, then 

 rake it over and level the soil, sowing 

 the seeds in rows four inches apart, run- 

 ning north and south in shallow drills. 

 Regulate the heat by raising the sash a 

 little at the north end. Close up the bed 

 at sundown and cover it with mats or 

 straw at night. See that the frame is 

 banked up to the top with more manure 

 on the outside. As soon as the young 

 plants appear, more air should be given 

 so that they will not become spindly or 

 damp off. Water only at noontime when 

 absolutely necessary. 



A cold frame is made in precisely the 

 same manner, except that no manure is 

 used. It can be used for the same pur- 

 poses as a hotbed, but germination takes 

 longer. Its principal use is for harden- 

 ing off plants that have been raised in a 

 hotbed or greenhouse before putting 

 them out into the open garden. By 

 starting your hotbed the early part of 

 March you will have good stocky plants 

 by May 24, which is the date for plnnt- 



mg out. SKEDfi TO ROW 



The next question is what seeds to 

 sow : 



3 kinds of onions — Red, White, and 

 Yellow Southports. 



3 kinds of tomatoes— Chalk's Early 

 Jewel, Earliana, and Beauty. 



2 kinds of celery — Paris Golden and 

 Rose Ribbed Paris. 



1 kind of beets— Early Flat Egyptian. 



2 kinds of lettuce — Nonpariel and 

 CIrand Rapids. 



2 kinds of cabbage — Henderson's 

 Summer and Glory. 



I kind of cauliflower — Snowball. 

 I kind of parsley — Curled variety. 



The tomato plants prown last eprins by Mr. E. S. Hodges, of Simooe. Out., were spaced one foot 

 apart in the row, and in June attained a height of nine feet. ^ They carried fruit from the 

 bottom to tie top, the averaee plant having a dozen trusses. There was about 15 to 18 lbs, 

 fruit to a stem. Has anyone in Ontario beaten this? 



of 



I kind of cucumber — White Spine or 

 Long Green. 



It will assist greatly to transplant the 

 following two or three times in the cold 

 frame lx?fore putting them out in the 

 open — onions, tomatoes, and cabbage. 

 The others will do all right by just thin- 

 ning them out and stirring the soil 

 around them. Outside of the extra work 

 attached to making one's own hotbed, 

 the advantages are vastly superior to 

 relying on florists and corner groceries 

 for what they have got left over. There 

 are also a number of flowers which re- 

 quire to be raised early, such as salvia, 

 oobaea, marigolds, salpiglossis, phlox, 

 stocks, asters, zinnias, petunias, and 

 olhers. If you include satisfaction with 

 lost, the hotbed wins out easily. 



mixtures result from neglect to watch 

 some one of these three points. So much 

 valuable information is now available in 

 bulletin form on the preparation of 

 spraying mixtures and concerning their 

 application that there is little excuse for 

 any one to go far astray in their use. 



To destroy asparagus beetles, spray 

 with arsenate of lead after the cutting 

 season is over. For asparagus rust, use 

 the Resin Bordeaux mixture after the 

 cutting .season is past, two weeks later, 

 and again two weeks later. For the 

 cabbage worm use arsenate of lead plus 

 the resin lime mixture whenever the. 

 worms appear, and again before the 

 worms become abundant. 



The cucumber beetle can be controlled 

 by application of arsenate of lead applied 

 as soon as the insects appear, and re- 

 peated whenever necessary. Arsenate 

 of lead may be used to control tomato 

 worms, and should be applied when the 

 worms appear. For the potato beetle, 

 use paris green 1-50 or arsenate of lead 

 4-50 as soon as the beetle eggs hatch. 

 Repeat the application whenever neces- 

 sary. Potato blight is controlled by the 

 use of Bordeaux mixture when the plants 

 are two inches high. Give successive 

 applications at intervals of two weeks 

 during the growing period. 



Sprays for Vegetables 



To obtain the best results from spray- 

 ing operations, three points must be 

 safeguarded: Use only properly prepar- 

 ed mixtures, use them at the right time, 

 and apply them thoroughy. Most of the 

 failures in the application of spraying 



I used Soluble Sulphur last .season on 

 an orchard badly infested with scale. 

 It was used on the bare wood with the 

 best of results. After the foliage came 

 on I did not use soluble sulphur, so can- 

 not give an opinion of its value for later 

 sprayings.— J. C. Harris, Ingersoll, Ont. 



