1 



OF EARTH. 71 



Dig a pit or fosse, hot-bed depth, (four feet is sufficient,) and of what 

 figure and dimension you think will best entertain your furniture for it ; 

 if it be twenty feet in length, and ten broad, I think it competent. Line 

 the sides with a wall of brick and half thick ; fill this pit with fresh soil 

 from the stable, trodden as other hot-beds are, but without any mould 

 on the surface. On this place half-inch wooden cases, made like coffins, 

 (but not contracted at the extremes, nor lidded,) of what length and 

 breadth you think best, but not above a foot in depth ; let these be dove- 

 tailed, with wooden handles at each end to lift in and out, and bored full 

 of auger-holes at the bottoms. Your cases thus fitted, fill them with 

 proper mould, such as you would sow melon seeds in, or any other rare 

 seed, and thus place them in your bed of dung. The heat will pass kindly 

 through the perforations, and continue a cherishing Avarmth five times 

 as long as by the common way of hot-bed, and prevent you the trouble of 

 making new and fresh for the whole process of the melon, or what other 

 of choicer plants require more than one removal. The heat of this bed 

 continues eight or ten weeks without need of repairing ; and if it should, 

 it is but casting in some fresh-made soil and litter beneath and about 

 your cases, of which some you may glaze cheveron-wise at the top, and 

 with spiracles or casements, to refresh and give them air and sun at 

 pleasure. And these beds, where you cannot conveniently sink them 

 for want of depth, because of water, you may build above ground as 

 well ; and you may, or may not, extend a tent over them, to protect 

 them from rain, wind, and sun, according as you find occasion. Thus 

 have you a neat and useful hot-bed, as 1 have been taught to make it 

 by the right honourable the late lord viscount Mordaunt, at Parsons- 

 green, whose industry and knowledge in all hortulan elegancies, require 

 honourable mention. Note, That ordinary fresh mould, so it be not 

 poor and very lean, is apt to clog, and is a better surface for the hot-bed to 

 entertain and cherish the most curious seeds, than what gardeners uni- 

 versally make use of, sticky and over loose ; at least, let a due proportion 

 of natural earth be sifted amongst it. 



Being now at last come to set down the several ways of preparing com- 

 posts of dungs, and those other ingredients we have mentioned, we shall 

 begin with the rudest, as that which best accommodates to the grosser part 

 of husbandry, (which yet requires a special maturation,) and so descend 

 to the more refined. These I distinguish into the moist, the dry, and the 



