LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
9 
Strawberries are also extensively raised in hotbeds,, and in great per¬ 
fection. The gardener bestows much attention on the preparation of 
the dung intended for hotbeds; it is repeatedly turned, mixed, and 
moistened, if necessary, until the whole mass is of one uniform state, 
and free from all rankness of scent, and chance of violent heat, which 
it might evolve after being put together in a bed. This preparation 
is either made in the dung-hole of the stable-yard, or brought within 
the melon-ground by the gate which forms the communication 
between. 
The melon-ground is well sheltered, which is a great advantage; 
and though it has not the earliest sunshine, in consequence of the trees 
to the eastward of it, still the beds receive the sun’s rays as early in the 
morning as they may be safely uncovered. 
I asked the gardener whether he did not think the whole range of 
framing could be heated by hot water ? He answered that, though he 
had had no experience of the hot-water system, yet, from what he had 
seen and heard of it in the neighbourhood, he was convinced that a 
range of hotbeds could be worked by a properly-constructed hotbed 
apparatus, as well as any other forcing-house, A central boiler of 
sufficient capacity, with mains leading right and left, with branches 
furnished with stopcocks, and laid to traverse under and round each 
division of the range, is quite practicable, and, no doubt, would answer 
well. The most difficult part of the plan would be in forming a suit¬ 
able table or platform to contain the bed of soil in which the plants are 
intended to grow, and which would be sufficiently permeable to heat 
and vapour, so necessary to the healthy and quick growth of the plants. 
But this difficulty, he thought, might be easily overcome by stout 
bearers, iron-grating, and long littery dung, to support the bed of earth. 
Beneath this there would be a vacant space, in which the branch- 
pipe should traverse to and fro, before being led into the returning 
main. 
Such a scheme as this would be particularly suitable where stable- 
dung or other fermenting material was scarce, and fuel plentiful; and 
it would certainly save much labour in the ordinary processes of hot¬ 
bed management, besides being less liable to those accidents which 
often, under the greatest care, assail the sensitive inmates of a duno* 
hotbed. 
Mushrooms are raised upon beds made under the shed against the 
wall of the stable-yard, and in the usual manner. A first bed is made 
in September, and a second in about three months afterward. The 
dung of which these beds are made is particularly well prepared pre¬ 
vious to its being put into form ; it is rather dry than otherwise when 
roL. v.— no. LV. 
c 
