HOT-BEDS. 265 



the coveriDg ■will require to be put on thicker, to exclude the 

 frost, than when they can be put below the surface. 



The following varieties are the most desirable for garden 

 culture. 



Nimble Dick. — The earliest Turnip, white and flat, of good 

 quality, and much prized by those who grow Turnips for market. 



Golden Ball. — A yeUow-fleshed variety, globular and 

 smooth, sweet and of good flavor. 



PuRPLE-Top Strap-Leaved. — A. flat, smooth Turnip, with a 

 slender tap-root, firm fleshed, sweet and mild flavored. An excel- 

 lent variety, and yields good crops. 



Yellow Malta. — ^A small, early, yeUow-fleshed variety, of 

 fine grain and good flavor, probably the best yellow Turnip for 

 summer use. 



Sweet German. — ^The best table variety with which we are 

 acquaiated for late fall and winter use. The seed should be sown 

 from the first to the tenth of July in good, deep, rich soil, and 

 the Turnips will be large enough for the table in October, and 

 much sweeter than if sown earlier. It resembles the Swedish 

 Turnips in form, but is white fleshed, fine grained, solid, sweet 

 and of superior flavor. It will keep in fine condition until June, 

 retaining its fresh, crisp character and sweet flavor. It is not 

 always quite as smooth in form as a Turnip raiser would desire, 

 but it more than makes up in sweetness and quality what it lacks 

 in beauty of form. 



HOT-BEDS. 



Perhaps the first thing to be provided, in preparing a hot-bed, 

 would be the frame, which is a sort of box without a bottom, 

 nine feet long, six feet wide, two feet deep at the back and eighteen 

 inches in front, level at the bottom but sloping gradually from 

 the back to the front at the top. This, if made out of pine plank 

 two inches thick, and dove-tailed together, will be substantial 

 and lasting. The sides should be enough higher than the front 



