THE HANDLING OF THE PLANTS 163 
provided with a handle. This frame is placed with the small 
end down at the point where the seeds are to be planted, and 
the earth is hilled up about it and firmly packed with the feet. 
The mold is then withdrawn, and a pane of glass is laid upon the 
top of the mound to concentrate the sun’s rays, and to prevent 
the bank from washing down with the rains. A clod of earth 
or a stone may be placed upon the pane to hold it down. 
Sometimes a brick is used as a mold. This type of forcing-hill 
is not much used, because the bank of earth is liable to be washed 
away, and heavy rain coming when the glass is off will fill the 
hill with water and drown the plant. However, it can be’used 
to very good advantage when the gar- 
dener can give it close attention. 
A forcing-hill is sometimes made by 
digging a hole in the ground and plant- 
ing the seeds in the bottom of it, plac- 
ing the pane of glass upon a slight ridge 
or mound which is made on the sur- 
face of the ground. This method is less desirable than the 
other, because the seeds are placed in the poorest and coldest 
soil, and the hole is very likely to fill with water in the early 
days of spring. 
An excellent type of forcing-hill is made by the use of the 
hand-box, as shown in Fig. 192. This is a rectangular box, 
without top or bottom, and a pane of glassisslipped into a groove 
at the top. It is really a miniature coldframe. The earth is 
banked up slightly about the box, in order to hold it against 
winds and to prevent the water from running into it. If these 
boxes are made of good lumber and painted, they will last for 
many years. Any size of glass may be used which is desired, 
but a ten-by-twelve pane is as good as any for general purposes. 
After the plants are thoroughly established in these forcing- 
hills, and the weather is settled, the protection is wholly removed, 
and the plants grow normally in the open. 
ia 
192. Hand-box. 
