VEGETABLE GROWING 313 



open ground. The place where plants are usually started 

 in this way is called a hotbed. 



Cabbage and lettuce may be started in these beds while 

 the ground is yet frozen. Radishes and lettuce may be 

 grown to maturity in them. Tomatoes may grow in these 

 beds to be several inches tall before the ground outside 

 is warm enough even to receive the seed. Muskmelons 

 and water melons may be started in inverted pieces of sod 

 in the hotbed and then transplanted when favorable 



Fig. 143. — A hotbed. 



weather comes on. In this way we can secure melons 

 several weeks earlier than we could otherwise. 



EXERCISE 52 



Object. — To learn how to make and manage a hotbed. 



Procedure. — Select some place on or near the school 

 ground where the soil is well drained. A south slope is 

 preferable, and a gravelly or sandy soil drains better than 

 one of heavy clay. 



Dig a pit two feet deep and as long and as wide as the 

 window frame which you can secure to cover the hotbed. 

 Build a frame out of lumber to hold your window sash, 

 allowing it to slope as shown in Figure 143. 



Secure a load of fresh, liorse barn litter, of which about 

 one half is bedding. Place this in a long, narrow pile three 

 or four feet wide and about the same height. This manure 



