VEGETABLE GROWING 315 



The soil should be kept stirred to keep down the weeds 

 and to prevent baking. If the little plants are crowded, 

 some of them should be removed. 



A cold frame is made in exactly the same way as a 

 hotbed, only that the pit, containing the heated manure, 

 is omitted. 



From the hotbed, the plants may be taken to the cold 

 frame to be " hardened " before they are finally trans- 

 planted into the garden. 



Conclusion. — Write a brief account in your notebook 

 of the method of making a hotbed, the time required by 

 the various seeds to germinate and reach the surface, 

 and the management of it until the young plants are trans- 

 planted or otherwise disposed of. 



236. In the Garden Proper. — Now that we have at- 

 tended to those vegetables which may be grown, or at 

 least started in the hotbed, let us turn our attention to the 

 garden itself. 



The ground should have been fall plowed, or spaded, 

 and during the winter it should have had an apphcation 

 of well rotted barnyard manure to provide plant food 

 and to make the soil more mellow when worked into the 

 ground. 



Our next task is to make a plan of the garden in order 

 that we may know just where each vegetable is to be 

 planted. In making this plan, we must bear in mind that 

 good gardeners no longer use the old-fashioned beds, for 

 they are hard to weed and moreover cultivation must be 

 done largely by hand. Long, straight rows give a garden 

 a very neat appearance and permit the use of that great 

 labor saver, the wheel hoe. 



Prepare in your notebook a plat of your home garden. 

 Make the scale such that one inch on the paper represents 

 twenty feet in the garden. The size should depend upon 



