FRAMES AND HOTBEDS 115 



tomatoes, etc., you could have early celery, early 

 cabbage and cauliflower. 



While brick and cement are the best materials 

 to use I favor cement because it is cheaper. Any 

 workman can build the forms. There are only 

 two important points in concrete work of this kind 

 to remember: Have the form thoroughly braced 

 so that it cannot move in any way, and have the 

 mixture wet and well mixed. Pound it after put- 

 ting it into the form until the water rises to the 

 surface. 



Always lay out the frame so that it faces south 

 and have it so that the plate that the sash rest on 

 is 6 inches higher in back than in front. Don't 

 butt your sash; use proper sashbars. They come 

 up flush with the sash and are about one inch wide 

 on top. Have the frame one inch longer for each 

 sash it contains. The sashbars can be purchased 

 cheaply and they give a neat finish to a frame. 

 Place buttons on the sashbar which will prevent 

 the sash from blowing off and being smashed or 

 damaged by a windstorm. 



Place the frames near enough to the house so 

 that a pipe can be run out from the boiler. This 

 will turn it into a miniature greenhouse for growing 

 lettuce, spinach, etc., during the winter, besides 

 an occasional bunch of flowers. It requires very 

 little heat to keep such a small space up to the 

 growing temperature — about fifty degrees. For 

 the vegetables mentioned a couple of 2-inch pipes 

 would do it nicely. Wherever this is possible I 

 would strongly urge it, as it does away with the 



