96 



KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. 



[chap. 



made of good materials, and put together with the greatest care. 

 It is to be carried up even to the height of the top of the frame, 

 where a board is to be laid upon it, close against the frame, 

 in order to prevent the steam, arising from it, finding its way in 

 upon the plants. This lining will send great heat into the bed, 

 and will continue so to do for a great while ; but still a fresh sup- 

 ply of heat will be wanted : and, therefore, in about another fort- 

 night, you are to put a similar lining to both ends of the bed ; and 

 in a fortnight from that time, or thereabouts, according to the 

 weather and the state of the bed, another similar lining in the 

 front of the bed, the dung having, in all these cases, been duly 

 prepared, as noticed in Chapter III. As these linings sink, they 

 ought to be topped up, keeping them always as nearly as possible 

 to the height of the top of the frame. If very sharp weather come 

 before these linings, or before some of them have been made, good 

 quantities of litter or of straw ought to be brought temporarily to 

 supply their place, so that frost never reach the bed. Even when 

 there are linings, it is good, in very sharp weather, to put litter 

 and straw round the outsides of them ; for, dung being moist, the 

 frost soon reaches it, and then it becomes inactive at once. To 

 these precautions, relative to the heat, must be added the not-less- 

 important ones relative to air and light ; for, without these, no 

 plant will thrive, nor will it live but for a short space of time. At 

 this season of the year, the glasses must be covered over in the 

 night time, as was before mentioned in the case of the seed-bed ; 

 but these coverings should remain on in the morning never longer 

 than is absolutely necessary. Though there be no sun, there is 

 light, and plants crave the light at the time when nature sends 

 it. As to air, it is given to the plants by the means of pieces 

 of triangular wood, which every one knows how to make. The 

 light is lifted up at one end, and the tilter, as it is called, is put 

 under the middle of the light to keep it up to the height required. 

 You sometimes give air on the back side of the frame and some- 

 times on the fro lit, according to the direction in which the wind is 

 coming. To give directions respect ng the quantity of air, one can 

 only say that it must be in proportion to the heat of the bed and 

 the state of the weather ; but it may be observed, as an invariable 

 rule, that strong heat and a good quatitity of air are the sure means 

 of having early cucumbers. When the air is kept exckided or 

 supplied in niggardly quantities, because the heat is not powerful 



