H O V 
H O T 
sightly work from view, and straws from blow- 
ing about, the litter of which is so disagree- 
able. 
Working of the dung is necessary previous 
to the making of a hot-bed, i. e. it should 
be thrown together on an heap, in a conical 
form ; and when it has taken a thorough 
lieat, and has been smoking or sweating for 
two or three days, it should be turned over, 
moving the outside, in, or mixing the colder 
parts with the hot. When it has taken heat 
again for two or three days, give it a second 
turn as before, and having lain the same time, 
it will be in proper order for making a good 
lasting bed with a steady heat. If in haste, 
it may be made into a bed after the first heat- 
ing; 'but it will be better for shifting again, 
or even a third time. When dung is ready 
before wanted, keep turning it over, lest it 
should be too much spent. It will be pro- 
per to begin to work fresh dung a week or 
ten days before it is to be used; but if the 
dung is not fresh, it is only necessary to throw 
it together for once heating. 
The size of a hot-bed, as to length and 
breadth, is of course to be according to the 
frame; and the height of it according to the 
season and the degree of heat requisite to the 
nature of the plant to be cultivated. In a 
dry soil, a bed may be sunk in the ground 
from six inches to a foot, to make it more con- 
venient to get at and manage. But beds 
made forward in the sea.-on should rather be 
on the surface, for the sake of being able to 
add stronger linings, &c. 
In case of an insufficient quantity of good 
horse-dung, that of cows, oxen, or pigs, if it 
is strawy, and not too wet, may be mixed 
with it/ in the proportion of one-fourth or 
more, especially in an advanced part of the 
season, or to cultivate things that are only 
forcing, and do not naturally require heat. 
When the season is pretty much advanced, 
liot-beds may be made of grass mowings (as 
from an orchard) and weeds, which is a com- 
mon practice in the cyder countries. '1 liese 
heats, however, are often too violent, and last 
not long ; yet they may be lined with the same 
materials if done "in time, otherwise if a green 
hot-bed gets greatly cool, it will not be reco- 
vered. A grass bed may be used as soon as 
warm, but let it not be overweighted by 
putting on heavy frames, or more mould 
than necessary. It should rather be worked 
with hand-glasses or oiled paper covers. 
Hot-beds are sometimes made of the refuse 
bark of- a tanner’s yard, and also of oak-leaves ; 
but these must have walled pits for them of 
a large size, and are seldom used but in hot- 
houses. A bark-bed properly made, and 
managed by forking up at two or' three 
month’s end, &c. will hold a fair, moderate, 
and steady heat four, five, or six months. 
To decrease the heat of a bed, several 
holes may be made in it, by thrusting an iron 
bar, or a thick smooth sharp-pointed stake, ■ 
up to the middle, which holes are to be close 
stopt again with dung or hay when the lieat 
is sufficiently abated. 
The uses to which hot-beds may be applied 
are various, but chiefly for the cultivation of 
cucumbers and melons. At the spring of the 
year, hot-beds are commonly made use of 
for forcing crops of several vegetables, as ra- 
dishes, carrots, cauliflowers, lettuces, pota- 
toes, turneps, kidney-beans, purslane, tarra- 
gon, small sailuding, &c. Fruits of several 
sorts, as cherries, strawberries, raspberries, 
See. are sometimes brought forward by dung 
heat ; as also various shrubs and flowers, by 
means of forcing-frames. Tender annuals, 
as balsams and other flowers that necessarily 
require heat to bring them up, and the less 
tender, and some even of the hardy sorts, are 
also cultivated on hot-beds, or by other assist- 
ance from dung* to produce an earlier blow 
than could otherwise be.had. 
Hot-house, in salt-making, the place 
where they dry the salt, when taken out of 
the boiling-pan. It is situated near the fur- 
nace, which, by means of funnels or tubes, 
conveys the heat into it. 
II ot-house, in gardening, an erection in- 
tended for the culture of the tender exotics 
of tropical climates. It is usually built lower 
than a greenhouse, with double flues, and a 
pit in the middle for tanner’s bark, in which, 
as in a kind of hot-bed, the pots containing 
the plants are to be plunged. A hot-house 
should he kept at a regular lieat, seldom less 
than 70°; and when the weather becomes 
about 10° below that extremity, the fires may 
be left olf. The tan should be renewed twice 
a year, in spring and autumn; and care must 
be taken not to plunge the plants in it till the 
heat is risen to a proper degree. 
The ingenious Dr. Anderson, so well 
known for his labours in agriculture, has 
lately constructed a hot-house to he kept 
warm by air chiefly warmed by the heat of 
the sun. It is entirely of glass, and the up- 
per part is a close chamber to contain the 
heated air, -which is let into the house by a 
valve. In the winter the chamber is heated 
by a lamp, and the warm air is admitted in 
the same manner as that which is warmed by 
the sun. The house is also moveable; but 
for further details we must refer to the doc- 
tor’s Agricultural Recreations. 
HOTCH-pot, in law, is used for mixing 
of lands given in marriage with other lands 
in fee which fall by desefnt; as where a man 
possessed of thirty acres of land has issue 
only two daughters, and after his having 
given with one of them ten acres in mar- 
riage, he dies possessed of the other twenty. 
Here she that is thus married, in order to 
gain her share of the rest of Hie land, must 
put her part given in marriage in hotch-pot ; 
that is, she must refuse to take the sole pro- 
fits of her lands, and cause it to be mingled 
with the other, so that an equal division may 
be made of the whole between her and her 
sister; by which means, instead of only her 
ten acres, she has fifteen. 
HOV ENIA, a genus of the class and order 
pentandria monogynia. The petals are five, 
convoluted; stigma trifid; capsule three- 
celled, three-valved. There is one species, 
a shrub of Japan. 
HOVERING. Ships of 50 tons, laden 
with customable or prohibited goods, hover- 
ing on the coasts of this kingdom, within the 
limits of any port (and not proceeding from 
foreign parts), may be entered by officers of 
the customs, who are to take an account of 
the lading, and to demand and take a secu- 
rity from the master, by his bond to his ma- 
jesty, in such sum of money as shall be treble 
the value of such foreign goods then on 
board ; that such ship shall proceed (as soon 
as wind and weather and the condition of the 
ship will permit) on her voyage to foreign 
parts, and shall land the goods in some fo- 
ld O u 927 
reign port; the master refusing to enter into 
such bond on demand, or who having given 
bond, shall not proceed on such voyage (un- 
less otherwise suffered to make a longer stay 
by the collector or other principal officer of 
such port w here the vessel shall be, not ex- 
ceeding 20 days); in either of the said cases, 
all the foreign goods on board may be taken 
out by the customhouse-officers, by direction 
of the collector, and properly secured ; and if 
they are customable, the duties shall be paid; 
and if prohibited, they shall be forfeited. 
The officers of the customs may prosecute 
the same, as also the ship, if liable to con- 
demnation. 3 Geo. 111. c. 21. 
Commanders of men of war, and custom- 
house-officers, may compel ships of 50 tons, 
or under, hovering within two leagues of 
shore, to come into port. 6 Geo. I. c. 21. 
If any ship or vessel shall be found at an- 
chor, or hovering within eight leagues of the 
coast (except between the North Foreland 
and Beachy Head), unless by distress of 
weather, having on board foreign spirits, in 
any vessel or cask which shall not contain bO 
gallons at least, or any wine in casks (pro- 
vided such vessel have wine on board), shall 
not exceed bQ tons burthen, or six pounds 
weight of tea, or 20 pounds weight of coflee, 
or any goods whatever liable to forfeiture 
upon importation, that such goods, with the 
ship and furniture, shall be forfeited ; spirits 
for the use of seamen, not exceeding two 
gallons per man, excepted. 42 Geo. 111. 
c. 82. 
HOUND. See Cants. 
HOUR, kora, in chronology, an aliquot 
part of a natural day, usually a 24th, some- 
times a 12th. See Astronomy, Geogra- 
phy, &c. 
There are different hours used by chrono- 
logers, astronomers, dialists, &c. Some- 
times hours are divided into equal and un- 
equal. Equal hours are the 24th part of a 
day and night precisely, .that is, the time 
wherein 15 degrees of the equator mount 
above the horizon. ’These are also called 
equinoctial hours, because they are measured 
on the equinoctial ; and astronomical, because 
used by astronomers. They are also differ- 
ently denominated according to the man- 
ner of accounting them in different countries. 
Astronomical hours are equal hours, reckon- 
ed from noon or mid-day, in a continued 
series of twenty-four. Babylonish hours are 
equal hours reckoned in the same manner 
from sun-rise. The Italian .hours are also 
equal hours, reckoned in the same manner 
too, from sun-setting. European hours are 
also equal hours, reckoned from midnight; 
12 from thence to noon, and 12 more from 
noon to midnight. Jewish, or planetary, or 
antient hours, are the twelfth part of the ar- 
tificial day and night, each being divided into 
12 equal parts. Hence, as it is only in the 
time of the equinoxes that the artificial day 
is equal to the night, it is then only that the 
hours of the day are equal to those of the 
night. At other times they will be always 
either increasing or decreasing : and they will 
be the more or less unequal according to the 
obliquity of the sphere. 
HOl)SE. Every man’s house is as his 
castle, as well to defend him against injuries, 
as for his repose. 
Upon recovery in any real action or eject- 
ment, the sheriff may break the house and 
