572 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



end, in order both to draw up the heat sooner, and to give vent to the rising steam, until 

 the bed is reduced to a regular temperature. In connection with the thermometer, the 

 cultivator may be assisted to form a judgment of this, by trying-sticks, that is, two or 

 more sharp-pointed smooth sticks, thrust down in different parts of the bed ; which at 

 intervals may be drawn up, and felt by a quick grasp of the hand. The smell of the 

 vapor is also a criterion : it should not be strong and fetid, but mild and sweet. While 

 taking care that the heat is not so intense as to burn the mould when applied as below, 

 let it not be suffered to evaporate unnecessarily by delay. If the temperature appear 

 not sufficiently high, take off the frame, and add another course of dung." 



3200. M'Phail, when he fruits the cucumber on dung-beds, begins to make preparations for the fruiting, 

 bed, about three weeks before the plants are ready to be planted out for good. The dung collected, after 

 being well worked, is " made up into a bed of about four or five feet high, and the frames and 

 lights set upon it. It is afterwards suffered to stand for a few days to settle, and until its violent heat be 

 somewhat abated ; and when it is thought to be in a fit state for the plants to grow in, its surface is made 

 level, and a hill of mould laid in just under the middle of each light, and when the mould gets warm, the 

 plants are ridged out in it. After this, if the bed has become perfectly sweet, and there be heat enough 

 in it, and the weather prove fine, the plants will grow finely." 



3201. Nicol builds his fruiting-bed about four feet and a half high at back, and three feet and a half in 

 front, keeping it fully a foot loiiger than the frame all round. He turfs it, and lays on sand as in forming 

 the seed-bed, if the dung has not been well fermented. " But otherwise, placing a thick round turf, a j'ard 

 over, in the middle of each light, so as that its centre may be exactly under the plants, will generally be 

 found sufficiently safe." The frames are now put on ; and the beds matted up at night to make the heat 

 rise the sooner. 



3202. Mills says, " Well preparing the dung, is of the greatest importance in forcing the cucumber, 

 and if not done before it is made into a bed, it cannot be done after, as it requires turning and watering 

 to cause it to ferment freely and sweetly ; fresh dung from the stable will require at least six weeks' pre- 

 paration before it will be fit to receive the plants. A month before it is made into a bed, it should be laid 

 into a heap, turned three times, and well shaken to pieces with a fork, and the outsides of the heap 

 turned into the middle, and the middle to the outsides, that the whole may have a regular fermentation ; 

 and if any appear dry, it should be made wet, keeping it always between the two extremes of wet and 

 dry. A dry spot of ground should be chosen to prepare the dung on, that the water may drain away 

 from the bottom of the heap. The dung having been a month in licap, I make the bed as follows : I form 

 a stratum one foot high, of wood of any kind, but if large the better (old roots of trees, or any other of 

 little value will do) ; this is to drain the water from the bottom of the bed ; for, after a month's prepar- 

 ation, with every care, it will frequently heat itself dry, and require water in large quantities, which, if 

 not allowed to pass off freely, will cause an unwholesome steam to rise, in which the cucumber-plant will 

 not grow freely : on this bottom of wood I make the bed, four feet high, with dung, gently beating it down 

 with a fork : this is done about the 1st of November, and by the month of February the four feet of dung 

 will not be more than two feet thick, which, with the foot of wood at the bottom, will make the bed three 

 feet high ; this I consider a good height, for if lower, it cannot be so well heated by linings, which is the 

 only method of warming it in the months of February and March, as by that time the first heat of the 

 bed will have quite declined. Having made the bed, I put on the frames and lights, which I shut close 

 till the heat rises. I then give air night and day, sufficient to allow the steam to pass off, and once in two 

 days I fork the surface over, about nine inches deep, to sweeten it, and if, in the operation, I find any 

 part dry, I carefully wet it. The bed being quite sweet, I prepare it for the mould, by making the middle 

 about eight inches lower than the sides, as the sides are liable, from the weight of the frames, to settle 

 faster than the middle, which often causes the hills of earth to crack, by which the roots of the plants are 

 greatly injured." {Horf. Tra/is. vol. iii. p. 147.) 



3203. Moulding. " As soon," Abercrombie observes, " as you deem the bed to have 

 a lively, safe, w^ell tempered heat, which may be in a week or ten days after building, 

 proceed to mould it. Earth the middle of each light, laying the mould so as to form a 

 little hill, from six to ten inches in height, according as seed is to be sown, or plants 

 from the seed-bed inserted. Then earth over the intervals between the hills and the 

 sides of the frame only, from two to four inches, as a temporary measure, until the heat 

 is ascertained to be within safe limit. After the whole bed has been some time covered, 

 examine the mould : if no traces of a burning effect appear, discoverable by the mould 

 turning of a whitish color and caking, it will be fit to receive the plants. But if the 

 earth appears burnt, such part should be replaced by fresh, and vacuities made to give 

 vent to the steam, by drawing away part of the hills from the centre. Wlien the bed is 

 in fit order, level the mould to six inches deep, to receive seeds ; but to receive plants 

 in pots, the hills of earth should be kept ten inches deep or more. If there be any 

 motive for haste while an excess of heat is to be suspected, the danger from burning 

 may be obviated by leaving vacancies in the top mould ; by placing patches of fresh cow- 

 dung or decayed bark to receive the pots of seeds or plants ; and by boring holes in the 

 bed with a round pole sharpened at the end, which holes should be filled up with hay 

 or dung when the heat is sufficiently reduced. Some persons place a layer of turf with 

 the sward downwards between the dung and the mould : but this, if ever expedient, is 

 only in late forcing ; for in winter the full effect of a sweet well tempered heat is wanted, 

 much of which, by being confined at top, may be forced out at the sides." 



3204. M'Pkail, in moulding common hot-beds, also raises hills in the centre of each light in the usual 

 way. {Gard. Eemem. p. 51.) 



3205. Wicol gathers up from the surface of the beds a sufficient quantitv of earth to raise hiUs whereon 

 to plant ; one exactly in the middle of each light, about a foot broad at top, and to within six inches of 

 the glass. If the frames be of a proper depth, they should be twelve or fifteen inches high above the turf. 

 (^Kal. 365.) 



3206. Mills puts under the centre of each light one solid foot of earth, the top of whifh is then within 

 nine inches of the glass, and the top of the plants, when planted in it, will be within three inches of the 

 glass. 



