Propagation tb 



Covering for seed-beds. 



Some kind of covering, if not always essential, is 

 desirable for the protection of the young plants from 

 cold nights and from the cool temperatures that often 

 occur late in the season. 



With a moderate hotbed, sweet potato plants can be 

 grown under cloth as well as glass. Many growers, 

 from South Carolina and Tennessee southward, use no 

 other cover than pine straw, which is raked off in the 

 daytime after the plants are started and replaced at 

 night. If the nights are cool, pine straw is frequently 

 employed to cover the beds before the plants appear. 



The ordinary hotbed frame may be covered with cot- 

 ton twilled cloth. The kind of covering may materially 

 influence the type of seed-bed to be employed. In re- 

 gions south of North Carolina, light bottom-heat is often 

 needed when a cloth covering is used, while in the same 

 territory no bottom-heat may be required if glass sash 

 is employed and properly managed. When cotton cloth 

 is used, it should be treated with hot linseed oil to ren- 

 der it waterproof and to lengthen its usefulness by pre- 

 venting decay. Canvas covers should be tacked on one 

 side and provided with poles on which they can be rolled 

 up in the daytime to admit sunlight and secure ventila- 

 tion. Handling the cloth cover will be greatly facili- 

 tated by providing support lathes or wires at frequent 

 intervals. Such construction will cause the water to 

 drain off without forming puddles and dripping on the 

 bed. In Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, commercial 

 plant-growers frequently use coldframes, 6 feet wide, 

 constructed of 8-inch strips for the sides, A thin cotton 

 cloth is merely tacked over this flat bed and only re- 



