THE 
GARDEN YARD 308 
Place a wooden framework round the bed and cover 
with a sash. Do not water. If the sun shines brightly 
in the middle of the day, cover the sash, and uncover as 
soon as the sun’s power is gone. In 4 or 5 days the plants 
will be up, and as soon as they can be handled they must 
be pricked off in frames standing on beds prepared in a 
similar way to the seed-bed, except that the soil inside 
must come half way up the board. Prick them out 2 
inches apart, and do not water. They will stand here 
during the winter and the work now is to watch them 
carefully, remove any decayed ones or any showing mil- 
dew. If any mildew shows, dust over lightly once or 
twice with flowers of sulphur. Keep as dry as possible. 
In hard, frosty weather cover the frames with mats, 
but remove these whenever possible, and give air on 
very mild days. 
“Towards the latter end of January prepare the hot- 
beds, by mixing well together equal quantities of old, 
dry manure and fresh manure. In both cases this must 
be ‘long.’* Shake out the lumps and lay the manure 
down to the depth of 18 inches. Keep level and beat 
down gently with the back of the fork. Make the beds 
wide enough to extend at least 9 inches beyond the 
frames. Tread the manure down and level up any 
hollows. Lay the frames on straight and level. Fill 
up inside one-third the depth with similar manure to that 
used for the bed, then add 2 inches or so of the prepared 
* Nore.—“ Long’’ manure contains a good deal of litter that has 
not decayed, so that the manure does not break up into fine particles 
as ‘‘ well-rotted”’ manure does, 
