40$ HORT I 6 
thick foliage, which enforces and quickens the due circu¬ 
lation of fap. Thefe, when' combined, fully compel the 
roots to work for the general benefit of the tree. 
“ In thefe experiments Ijudged it proper to make choice 
of grafts from the forts of fruits which were the moft luxu¬ 
riant in their growth, or any new variety; and, if this obfer- 
vation is attended to, the practitioner will clearly perceive, 
from the firfc year’s growth, that the grafts would foon ftarve 
the fuckers which fhoot forth below them, if they were fuf- 
fered to remain. With a view to accomplifh this grand ob¬ 
ject of improvement, I gave much attention to the general 
praftice of invigorating old trees ; and I happily difco- 
vered the error of the common mode of grafting but a 
fhort diliance from tile trunk or body, called cleft-grafting, 
as ill own ’in the Horticultural Plate II. fig. 4. There the 
circumference of the wounds is'fo large as to require fe- 
veral grafts, which cannot firmly unite and clafp over the 
flumps, and confequently thefe wounds lay a foundation 
for after-decay. If that were not the cafe, yet it fo re¬ 
duces the fize of the tree, that it. could not recover its 
former ffate in many years, and it is dubious if it ever 
would; whereas, by the method of extreme grafting, as 
Blown at fig. 6, the tree will be larger in thr'ee or foul- 
years than before the operation was performed ; for, all the 
large branches remaining, the tree has nothing, to make 
but fruit-bearing wood ; and from the beautiful verdure 
it foon acquires, and the fymmetry of the tree, no argu¬ 
ment is neceiiary to enforce the praCiice. 
“Fig. 5 fhows an experiment made about ten years fince. 
The error of fig. 4 was there a little amended, and gave 
the idea of grafting at the extremity. Thofe done in my 
orchards, on the plan of fig. 5, did not, neither were they 
able, to bear as many apples laft feafon, which was a bear¬ 
ing year, as thofe on the plan of fig. 6, which produced 
about two bufhels each tree of the finelt fruit I had in 
my orchards, from the third-fummer’s wood only. Some 
grafted with Ribfton’s pippins were beautiful. 
“ Cement for Grafting. —One pound of pitch, one 
pound of refin, half a pound of bees’-wax, quarter of a 
pound of hogs’-lard, and a quarter of a pound of turpen¬ 
tine; to be boiled up together, but not to be uied till 
you can bear your finger in it.” 
Of HOT-BEDS. 
In this uncertain climate, hot-beds are of confiderable 
ufe in forwarding many productions of our gardens; and 
they are of many years .Handing, having been introduced 
by Gerard, in 1597. Without their aid, we could not en¬ 
joy fo many of the efculent vegetables of warmer coun¬ 
tries, nor could we have our tables furnilhed fo early with 
many of our own indigenous productions, as we now do 
in winter and fpring. In promoting the growth of cu¬ 
cumbers and melons, their utility is univerfally admitted. 
According to the quantity and quality of the materials 
put together for hot-beds, the heat will be proportioned 
as to the ftrength and duration; and by a judicious ufe 
in making, and the management afterwards, many advan¬ 
tages may be obtained from them. The great point is, 
to fait the degree of heat to the nature of the different 
plants to be cultivated, that they may have neither more 
nor iefs than is necefiary to promote a regular vegetation. 
Two errors are. common in the ufe of liot-beds; lowing 
or placing in the lame bed things of a very different na¬ 
ture as to the climate they grow belt in, and forcing with 
too much heat even the tendered:. Though it may not 
anfwer our too hafty views, the heat of a bed had better 
be (lack than othef.wife. A ffrong hot-bed, that ought 
to-be made a fortnight before it is ufed, is fometimes fur- 
nifti ed by impatience in a few days, and various ill con- 
fequences follow, which naturally frustrate expectation. 
The fize of a hot-bed, as to length and breadth, muff 
be apportioned to the frame; and the height of it accord¬ 
ing to the feafon. In a dry foil, a bed may be funk in 
tlie ground froth fix inches to a foot, to make it more 
convenient to manage. But beds made forward in the 
ULTURE, 
feafon (hould rather be on the furface, for the fake of be¬ 
ing able to add ffrong linings, &c. 
The belt fort of dung is that made of bean-ftraw, next 
wheat, rye, pats, and barley. When the feafon is pretty 
much advanced, hot-beds may be made of grafs-mowings 
and weeds, which is a common practice in the cider-coun- 
tr-ies. Thefe heats, however, are often too violent, and 
lall not long; yet they may be lined with thele materials, 
il done in time; otherwife, if a green hot-bed gets greatly 
cool, it will not be recovered. 
Hot-beds are fometimes made of the refufe bark of a 
tanner’s yard, and alfo of oak-leaves ; but thefe muff have 
walled pits, of a large fize, and are feldom ufed but in 
hot-houles. A bark-bed properly made, and managed 
by forking up at two or three months’ end, will hold a 
fair, moderate, and heady, heat, four, five, or fix, months. 
The bark is to be got frelh, after it has been thrown out 
of the vats a few days, and, if not moderately dry, kept 
a few days longer'to drain, and, if the. weather is fair, 
it may be opened to the fun to dry; for it will not fer¬ 
ment if it is put together wet. When it is made into 
a bed, it muff be only beaten together with the fork, and 
not trampled. In a fortnight it will have come to a fins 
heat, and fit for immediate ufe. 
The pit Ihould be eleven or twelve feet long, five or fix 
feet wide, and a foot, or a little more, higher than the 
bark in front, and two feet higher behind, to receive the 
mould on a body of bark three feet deep ; but, if for the 
cultivation of any thing in pots, as there will need no- 
mould, the pits need not be fo deep, the pots being 
plunged in the bark; or the pit may be made level all 
round, of a depth to hold the bark and mould, on which 
frames of wood may be fet. Let the pit be funk or.e-^ 
third or one-half in. the ground, as the foil about it is 
dry or not. 
The.ufes to which hot-beds may be applied are various, 
but chiefly for the cultivation of cucumbers and melons. 
At the fpring of the year, however, hot-beds are com¬ 
monly made ufe of for forcing crops of feveral vegetables, 
as radifhes, carrots, cauliflowers, lettuces, potatoes, tur¬ 
nips, kidney-beans, purfl^ne, tarragon, fmall fallading, 
&c. For the cultivation of cucumbers and melons, and 
all the different fpecies now known, as laid down by the 
late Philip Miller, efq. F.R S. fee the article Cucumis, 
vol. v. p. 442-4.56, and the corref'pondent Engraving. 
For the culture of Mushrooms, fee the article Acari- 
cus, vol. i. p. 192; Mr. P. Miller’s method. 
■ With refpeft to the form,-and the frames*- of our com¬ 
mon hot-beds, Mr. T. A. Knight has fuggefted the fol¬ 
lowing obvious improvements. “The furface of the com¬ 
mon hot-bed (lays Mr. Knight) is made perfectly hori¬ 
zontal; and, togivefome degree of elevation to the glafs, 
that end of the frame which is to Hand towards the 
north is made nearly as. deep again as the other; fo that, 
if the mould were placed of the fame depth (as it ought 
to be) over the whole bed, the plant would be too far 
from the glafs at one end of the frame, and -would want 
fpace at the other. To remove this inconvenience, I tried 
the effect of placing the hot-bed on an inclined plane of 
earth, elevated about fifteen degrees, making the furface 
of the dung and mouid’parallel with it, and adapting the 
Ihape of the frame to the furface .of the bed; by -which 
means the plants and the mould of the bed became much 
more expofed to the influence of the fun. And, though 
the improvement may appear trivial, it is not attended 
with any expence whatever, fince the frame, when made 
as recommended, cofts confiderably lefs than when made 
in the old form. 
“ I have often ufed, with great fuccefs, a frame and 
hot-bed thus formed for forcing grapes, by placing the 
bed at three feet diffance from the wall to which- the 
vines were trained, and introducing their branches into 
the frame, through holes made at the north end of it (the 
vines having been trained to a fouth wall), as foon as tlie 
iirff violent heat of the bed had fubfided. The white chaf- 
3 ielas 
