20 Richard Frotscher’s Almanac and Garden Manual 
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THE HOT BED. 
Owing to the open winters in the South, hot beds are not so much 
used as in the North, except to raise such tender plants as Egg-Plants, 
Tomatoes and Peppers. There is little forcing of vegetables done 
here, except as regards Cucumbers and Lettuce; and, if we do not 
have any hard frosts, the latter does better in the open ground than 
under glass. Tomakea hot bed isaverysimplething. Any one who 
has the use of tools can make the wooden frame; the sashes may be 
obtained from any sash factory. J consider a wooden frame from five 
to six feet wide and ten feet six inches long, a very good size. It 
should be at least six inches higher at the back than in the front, 
and covered by three sashes 3$x5 feet. The manure ought not to be 
over one month old; it should be thrown together in a heap, and when 
commencing to heat, be worked over with a fork, and all the long and 
short manure evenly mixed. In this State the ground is generally 
low, and to retain the heat of the manure for a longer time it is best 
to put the manure on top of the ground—that is, make a bank two 
feet longer and two feet wider than the frame. Keep the edges 
straight and the corners firm; when thrown up about eighteen inches 
trample the manure down to six or eight inches, then put on another 
layer of eighteen inches and trample down again; place thereon the 
frame and sash, and fill in six inches of good earth. After about five 
days stir the ground to kill the weeds which may have come up, then 
sow the seeds. In lower Louisiana the ground is too wet to dig out 
eighteen inches deep, throw in the manure apd trample down as re- 
commended in the North; by a few hard rains, such as we fre- 
quently have in winter, the manure would become so soaked beneath 
the ground that the heat would be gone. Another advantage,when 
the frame is put above the ground, is, that it will go down with 
the manure gradually, and there remains always the same space 
between the glass and the ground. If the ground is dug out and the 
manure put into the frame, the ground will sink down so low after a 
short time that the sun will have little effect upon it, and plants will 
become spindly. 
