1913. 
1377 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
A CONCRETE HOTBED. rial. At this time if any of the mate- 
Will you inform me the proper method ^ should be well soaked with 
of constructing a hotbed? I wish to water before being returned to the heap, 
build it to the south and quite close to as it will not generate heat when 
a barn. I wish to build the sides of con¬ 
crete. Would five parts clean cut sand 
to one part Portland cement be proper? 
Would concrete walls six inches thick, be 
thick enough, the bed to be six by 12 
feet? How deep should the manure be? 
What slant should be given the glass 
frames? When is the proper time of 
year to build it? Would fresh horse 
manure be the proper heating substance? 
How thick should the dirt be over the 
manure? How far above the dirt should 
the nearest part of glass be? How soon 
after completed can it be used? I wish 
to use it for lettuce, etc., and also for 
raising plants for garden use in Spring. 
Westwood, N. J. n. c. b. 
For the construction of concrete hot¬ 
bed, use one part cement, three parts 
sharp sand and four parts fine slag or 
gravel. The materials should be thor¬ 
oughly mixed and be thin enough to run, 
so it can be poured into the form from a 
bucket. No tamping will be necessary. 
Six-inch walls will be thick enough for 
a hotbed of this six. The walls should 
be 48 inches at the rear and 40 inches 
high in front. This allows eight inches 
of fall for the catching of the sun’s rays 
and for carrying off the rain water. Just 
how deep the bed should be sunk in the 
ground depends altogether on the drain¬ 
age. If the drainage is good the top of 
the frame need not be more than eight 
inches above the outside level of the 
ground in front, and 16 inches in the 
rear. When excavating the pit, if care 
is taken to make the sides and ends 
smooth and straight, no forms will be 
required on the outside or soil sides of 
the pit until the top of the ground is 
reached, when forms for both sides will 
be needed. A wooden cap made of 2x6 
hemlock, spruce or other wood is usually 
used on top of the concrete for the sash 
to rest upon, and as a rule is held in 
place by short bolts placed in the con¬ 
crete and extending two inches above it, 
counter-sinking the holes in the wood to 
a sufficient depth to permit the sinking 
of the nut until it is flush with the top 
of the woodwork. I find, however, these 
bolts can be dispensed with in the fol¬ 
lowing manner, when the inside form 
is erected: Use 2x4 hemlock or chestnut, 
which should be beveled on the edges, 
taking a half-inch off each. This will 
leave the posts three inches wide on one 
face and four inches on the other. In¬ 
stead of setting the posts on the pit or 
inside of the form, set them on the con¬ 
crete side. For a frame 12 feet long, 
six of these posts will be required, three 
in front and three in the rear. These 
posts should be spaced so that when the 
sash is put on, they will join in the cen¬ 
ter of the post, or if sash supports are 
to be used crossways of the frame, then 
a space of one inch must be allowed be¬ 
tween the edges of the sash, so that a %- 
inch strip one and one-half inches wide 
may be nailed to the supports to act as 
guides when the sash is moved backward 
and forward. 
The posts must be exactly the height of 
the concrete walls, and made perfectly 
level on top; the posts being beveled will 
be held rigidly in place by the concrete, 
and extending to the top of the wall, pro¬ 
vides an easy means of anchoring the 
wooden cap or plate, by spiking it to the 
ends of the posts. A similar post should 
be set in the center of each end of the 
frame to spike the ends of the plate to. 
The most suitable heating material for 
hotbeds is fresh horse manure, to which 
should be added when accessible one- 
half its bulk of forest leaves or other 
coarse material such as straw, hay, etc. 
After thoroughly mixing the heating ma¬ 
terial, it should be thrown together in 
a cone-shaped pile to undergo fermenta¬ 
tion. This conical heap should be large 
enough to insure its fermentation even 
in severe Winter weather. If the weath¬ 
er is freezing at the time the material 
is being handled, care must be taken that 
none of it that should happen to be¬ 
come frozen, is put in the heap, as con¬ 
siderable delay will occur before heat 
will be generated. In a few days after 
the pile has been thrown together a live¬ 
ly fermentation will take place. This 
will be indicated by the steaming of the 
pile, when it should be turned over and 
shaken apart, being careful to get that 
outside well mixed with that on the in¬ 
side of the heap. This will insure an 
even fermentation all through the mate- 
in a dry state. Re-form the heap 
as before, and allow it to remain until 
the second fermentation takes place, 
which will be usually in two to four days. 
It is now ready to be placed in the hot¬ 
bed or pit, at which time it should be 
evenly distributed, and lightly trodden 
with feet, so that it may be uniformly 
even and of the same solidity all over 
the bed, care being taken to get the sides 
and ends properly firmed. The heating 
material should be at least 2% feet in 
depth. Now place the sashes on the 
frame and keep closed until the heat 
rises. Plunge a thermometer in the man¬ 
ure, for the purpose of gauging the temp¬ 
erature. For a few days the temperature 
will probably range around one hundi’ed 
degrees, but this is too hot for plant 
growth, and the steam arising at this 
time will be more or less injurious, and 
must be allowed to escape until the 
temperature drops to between 85 and 90 
degrees, when good composted soil should 
be put on to a depth of about five inches. 
Spread evenly over the surface, firming 
and smoothing it with the steel rake un¬ 
til it is put in the very best possible 
condition for sowing, which may be im¬ 
mediately done. A clearance of six to 
eight inches between the sash and top of 
soil at lowest part will he sufficient. 
For early cabbage, cauliflower and let¬ 
tuce plants for outside planting, the seed 
should be sown about the first of March. 
Therefore the construction of the frame 
should be done as soon as possible, so 
it will be ready when wanted. Toma¬ 
toes, eggplant and pepper should be sown 
about the third week in March, but a new 
bed will have to be prepared for them, as 
the heat will have been pretty well ex¬ 
hausted in the one made for cabbage, 
cauliflower and lettuce, and the tempera¬ 
ture too low for the successful raising of 
the more tender plants. Allow the con¬ 
crete to become well seasoned before using, 
which will be indicated by its dry ap¬ 
pearance and solidity. k. 
Skunks and Bees. 
I have recently seen in The R. N.-Y. 
an inquiry from E. O. L. in regard to 
the cause of decrease in his bees. For 
the benefit of any who may have trouble 
of that kind I will relate what I have 
recently learned from observation and 
experience. A near neighbor informed 
me that he had during the past 
Summer, secured three large vigorous 
swarms of bees, and that notwithstanding 
the fact that they for a while gathered 
a large amount of honey, they decreased 
very rapidly and by September IS were 
so much reduced in numbers as to be en¬ 
tirely worthless. In the meantime he 
observed that something was scratching 
the ground at night near the front of the 
hives. It was suggested to him that it 
might be skunks that would come on 
warm nights, and by disturbing and ir¬ 
ritating the bees, devour them as they 
appeared at the entrance of the hives. In 
order to test the matter he set traps at 
the hives (just in front) and within a 
short time caught three skunks. On ex¬ 
amination I found that my bees were be¬ 
ing disturbed in the same way and by 
concealing a trap near the front of the 
hive within a few nights succeeded in 
trapping four large skunks. It is just 
possible that this is the trouble in the 
case of E. O. L. At any rate I am 
sure that I would have lost all of my 
bees, but for the timely warning received 
from my neighbor. • s. L. 
Fertilizer With Hen Manure. 
What kind of fertilizer should be used 
with hen manure around peach trees, and 
how much, also on Alfalfa and garden 
truck ? c . g. 
Columbus, N. J. 
Use three parts by weight of acid 
phosphate and one part muriate of pot¬ 
ash as chemicals with the manure. If 
the trees do not grow as they should, add 
a small quantity of nitrate of soda. 
Arthur was spending a day with his 
aunt. “I am going to do something to 
please you on your birthday,” she said to 
the little boy, ‘‘but first I want to ask 
the teacher how you behave in school.” 
“If you really want to do something to 
please me, auntie,” said the boy, “don’t 
ask the teacher.”—Lippincott’s. 
E. Frank Coe Fertilizers 
1 QC7 THE BUSINESS FARMERS’ STANDARD 1Q1 o 
_lOO # FOR OVER FIFTY-FIVE YEARS 1^10 
Do You Raise 300 Bushels of Potatoes per Acre? 
HREE hundred bushels per acre is 
not an unusual yield by any means, 
but did you get it this year ? 
<JIf you were planning to raise 300 
bushels of potatoes to the acre how 
^ far apart would you space your rows? 
How far apart would you drop the seed pieces in 
the row ? 
<3JHow much fertilizer would you use to grow 300 
bushels of potatoes per acre? How would you 
apply it ? 
€JAre you sure that your seed potatoes are true to 
name and true to type ? 
€JWhat are you doing to prevent “scab,” and early 
and late blight ? 
<IDid you have a short crop of potatoes because of 
dry weather ? Have you decided how you will 
overcome this trouble in the future ? 
<IA11 these practical points, and many more, are fully eovered in our 
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“Potatoes: A Money Crop” 
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