40 



THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap 



the inside. When it has remained two clear days 

 in this state, it is fit to make the bed with. 



71. In the making the bed you will proceed as 

 directed below; but I must first describe the Frame 

 and the Lights. Were I speaking to persons liv 

 ing in a country, where there is no such thing as a 

 hot-bed frame, I should be obliged to enter into a 

 detailed mechanical description. But, as Frames 

 and Lights are to be seen in almost every consider- 

 able town in America ; and, as I have known very 

 few American Farmers, w^ho are not able to make 

 both with their own hands, without any help from 

 either carpenter or glazier, it will be necessary 

 merely for me to say, that the Frame is of the best 

 shape when it is eighteen inches deep at the back, 

 and nine inches deep at the front. This gives slope 

 enough, and especially in a country where there is 

 so little rainy weather. The Frame is the wood 

 work, on which the Lights, or glass-work, are laid. 

 There needs no more than a good look at a thing of 

 this sort to know how to make it, or to order it to 

 be made. And, as it is useless to make a hot-bed 

 without having the Frame and the Lights ready, I 

 shall suppose them to be prepared. I suppose a 

 three-light Frame, four feet wide and nine feet 

 long, which, of course, will make every Light three 

 feet wide and /o-ur long ; because, the long way of 

 the Light fits, of course, the cross way of the 

 Frame. 



72. Now, then, to the work of making the bed. 

 The front of the bed is, of course, to he full South, 

 so that the noon sun may come right upon the glass. 

 The length and width of the bed must be those of 

 the Frame. Therefore, take the Frame itself, and 

 place it on the spot which you mean the bed to stand 

 on. See that you have it rightly placed ; and then> 



