32 



HOT-BEDS. 



[chap. 



CHAPTER III. 



On the making and managing of Hot-beds and Green-houses, 



47. I OBSERVED before that it did not accord with my plan to 

 treat of Hot-houses, which, as I then observed, was a branch wholly 

 distinct from gardening in general, and applicable to the circum- 

 stances of comparatively very few persons ; and that, therefore, to 

 enter on such a treatise would be of little use to the public in ge- 

 neral, while it would injuriously augment the bulk of my work. 

 Hot-beds are, however, of a different character : they maybe made 

 an amusement, and are even things of real utility, to a very con- 

 siderable number of persons : to all, in short, who have gardens, 

 and who have the stable-dung of two or three horses, or even one 

 horse, at their command, or who can procure such materials (as is 

 the case in the neighbourhood of great towns) at a reasonable rate. 

 A green-house, upon a small scale, or adapted to the particular 

 CH'cumstances of the proprietor, is within the reach of a very con- 

 siderable part of the community ; and, therefore, without, how- 

 ever, considering it as an essential object, or one worthy of very 

 great attention, I shall give my opinions upon that species of gar- 

 dening also. 



48. Hot-beds are used either for raising such things as are not 

 to be raised during the winter or the spring without such assist- 

 ance, or for the raising of such things as are not to be had at all in 

 our climate, without artificial heat of some kind. Before we 

 speak of the form and dimensions of a hot-bed, it will be best, per- 

 haps, to describe the frame which is to go upon it ; because the 

 reasons for the directions for the making of the bed will then 

 the more manifestly appear. A frame consists of four pieces of 

 wood ; and, let us suppose it to be twelve feet long, and four feet 

 wide. Frames are sometimes of greater and sometimes of less dimen- 

 sions ; but, for the sake of illustration, let us take a frame of this 

 size. There must be one board or two boards joined together, to 

 make the back, twelve feet in length, and eighteen inches wide ; 

 one board to make the front, twelve feet in length and nine inches 

 wide. One board at each end to be joined on to the ends of the 

 front and the back; eighteen inches at the back, and nine inches 



