. Figure 1. 
HOT BEDS. 
How To Construct jlnd Manage Them. 
MANURE BEDS. 
The construction and management of Hot 
Beds, is an exceedingly simple matter, and yet 
it requires careful attention to keep plants grow¬ 
ing in a healthy condition. 
Manure Beds, are most commonly used, horse 
manure being preferable to any other readily 
available substance. Fresh manure recently 
removed from the stable is best, but if it is made 
in too small quantities it should be frequently 
spread through the winter in order to keep it 
from heating and spoiling before spring. If a 
good proportion of fine straw or forest leaves 
are used in the bedding it improves the manure 
greatly for hot bed purposes. 
When ready to begin operations the manure 
should be forked over, shaken out finely and 
thrown into a high conical heap to heat, if any¬ 
ways dry it should be watered until well damp¬ 
ened throughout the heap. Leave it standing 
in this heap about a week and it will surely 
heat and begin smoking like a small volcano. 
There are now two methods for forming the 
bed, some digging a pit and sinking the manure 
in it, and others simply building the manure 
up into a square bed and setting the frame on it$ 
the first named method requires the most labor, 
the second the most manure, so we will let labor 
VS. manure decide which you shall adopt. 
Fig. 2, shows a perspective view of a bed 
constructed on the manure without a pit. If 
the manure is fine, and contains little,or np long 
straw it will be found pecessary to put a plank 
framt atouLd the nia^u.e to keep it in position. 
After leveling the manure there should be three 
or four narrow boards laid across its on which 
to rest the hot bed frame, so that after the 
manure heats all will settle together evenly, 
! otherwise the weight of the frame and sash will 
force it down into the manure, and the centre of 
the bed will appear to raise and perhaps displace- 
the plants. 
Of course you should select a spot for the bed 
which is sheltered as much as possible on 
the north and west by some building or 
high board fence. The sash should slope gently 
towards the south or east, both in order to carry 
off the rain water readily and to catch the suns" 
rays and gain light and warmth. 
The most common sashes are 3x6 feet. The 
frame should therefore, be made six feet wide 
and as long as necessary to accommodate the 
number of sashes to be used. 
A vital point always to be observed in making 
a hot bed is to spread the manure down while 
hot,it then continues to beat, but if spread down 
cold it will beat very slowly and unevenly or 
perhaps not at all. 
Early in spring, when considerable cold weath¬ 
er may yet be expected it will be necessary to 
use about a common wagon box full of manure 
to each sash, but later in the season, when form¬ 
ing beds ia which to transplant seedlings, one- 
half that quantity will sufiice. 
The soil to be used should be prepared in ad¬ 
vance. It must be light, loose and rich. 
Good sods placed in a heap with alternate 
layers of cow manure and allowed to stand and 
decay for about one year, makes a fine compost 
for starting a hot bed. In removing the soil 
from an old hot bed, shovel oat some of the fer¬ 
mented manure with it each year, this will keep 
it loose and in good mechanical condition. The 
poorest article I ever saw used in a hot bed was * 
sand washed from the road, which it was 
thought, would be rich and nice, but it packed 
down so hard that the whole bed was a failure. 
Soil should be placed on the manure to the 
depth of from four to six inches, and the glasses 
adjusted properly. After the soil becomes warm 
sow the seed in rows about four inches apart 
and scatter them quite thickly in the rows. 
Never sow broadcast, as the labor of keeping 
free from weeds is much greater. When the 
seedlings are about three inches high, they 
should be transplanted into rows, say 3x6 
inches, and as soon as these need more room or 
are in danger of running up^spindling transplant 
again. 
