20 
D. M. FERRY & CO’S DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 
FOURTH—Such a condition of soil that the ascending stem can easily penetrate it and the young roots speedily find 
suitable food. We can usually secure this by thorough preparation of the ground and taking care never to sow fine seeds 
when the ground is wet. Occasionally a heavy or long continued rain followed by a bright sun will so bake and crust the 
surface that it is impossible for the young plant to find its way through it, or a few days of strong wind will so dry the 
surface that the young plants will be killed. In such cases the only remedy is to plant again. 
• j. . . . Not only should every weed be removed as soon as it appears, but the crust which forms 
JUC1ICIOU8 Cultivation after a rain should be broken up and the ground stirred as soon as it is dry enough to 
permit it. The more frequently and deeply the soil is stirred while the plants are young, the better, but as they 
develop and the roots occupy the ground, cultivation should be shallower until it becomes a mere stirring of the surface. 
The yield and quality of vegetables have often been decidedly lowered by injudiciously deep and close cultivation after 
the roots of the plants had fully occupied the ground. A very small garden, well cultivated and cared for, will give larger 
returns and be in every way more satisfactory than a much larger one poorly prepared and neglected. 
How to Build and Manage Hotbeds 
For early vegetables, some provision for starting certain 
plants earlier than can be done in the open air is desirable; 
ror this purpose nothing is better than a good hotbed and 
its construction is so simple and the expense so slight that every 
garden should have one. A hotbed proper not only protects the 
plants from the cold, but supplies bottom heat. By this term 
the gardener means that the soil is constantly kept several 
degrees warmer than the air above, that being the condition, so 
far as heat is concerned, which is most favorable for rapid and 
vigorous growth, and gardeners usually secure it by making a 
compact pile of some fermenting material and covering it 
with the earth in which the plants are to grow. 
ii . • hm m. • i The best heating material that is 
Heating lvlaterial easily available is fresh horse ma¬ 
nure, containing a liberal quantity of straw bedding. Such 
manure, if thrown into a loose pile, will heat violently and 
unevenly and will soon become cold. What is wanted in the hot¬ 
bed is a steady and moderate but lasting heat. To secure this, 
the manure should be forked over, shaken apart and if dry, 
watered and allowed to stand a few days and then be forked oyer 
again, piled and allowed to heat a second time, the object being 
to get the whole mass into a uniform degree of fermentation 
and as soon as this is accomplished it is fit for use. 
c * Some gardeners use sash made especially for hotbeds 
bash and glazed with small lights cut from odds and ends and 
so furnished at very low rates. Such sash can usually be pro¬ 
cured in any of our large cities and costs much less than if made 
to order. For garden use, however, we much prefer a smaller 
sash that can be easily handled and the use of larger and better 
glass. We recommend that for home gardens the sash be about 
two and one-half by four or five feet and that the glass be not 
less than 10x14. laid with not more than one-quarter inch lap. 
In giving the order to one unaccustomed to the work, it would 
be well to state what they are to be used for, and that they 
need to be made like skylight sash. 
r> This may be made of sound one-inch lumber, 
1 il0 Jr rame the back twelve to fourteen inches high, the 
front ten to twelve. It should be well fitted to the sash so as to 
leave as little opening as possible and yet allow the sash to be 
easily moved up and down, even when the frame is quite wet. 
rp« q *| This should be light, rich, friable. Any con- 
I tie boil siderable amount of clay in it is very objec¬ 
tionable. If possible, it should be unfrozen when put into 
the bed; for this reason it is much better to prepare it the 
fall before and cover the pile with enough coarse manure 
or straw to keep out the frost. 
1UI I * , i o J This requires careful attention as 
Making ttl0 oed future success depends largely upon 
the manner in which this work is done. Having cleared away 
snow and ice, build a rectangular bed one foot larger each 
way than the frame to be used, carefully shaking out and 
spreading each forkful and repeatedly treading down the 
manure so as to make the bed as uniform as possible in solid¬ 
ity, composition and moisture. It is of the utmost impor¬ 
tance that this shaking apart and evenly pressing down of the 
manure should be carefully and thorouglily done; unless it is, 
one portion will heat quicker than the other and the soil will 
settle unevenly, making it impossible to raise good plants. 
The proper depth of the bed will vary with the climate, 
season and the kind of plants to be raised. A shallow 
bed will quickly give a high temperature which will soon 
subside; a deeper one, if well made, will heat more moder¬ 
ately, but continue much longer. For general purposes, a 
bed about two feet deep will be best. 
The bed completed, the frame and sash may be put on 
and fresh manure carefully packed around the outside to 
the very top (if the weather is at all severe, this outside 
banking should be replenished as it settles). The bed should 
then be allowed to stand with the sash partially open for a 
day or two to allow the steam and rank heat to pass off. 
The earth should then be evenly distributed over the surface 
of the bed and carefully leveled,. The earth should not be 
shoveled or dumped in one or more places in the bed and 
then leveled; if this is done uneven settling of the bed in¬ 
variably results. Care should be taken that the soil is dry 
and friable. If wet or frozen soil must be used, it should be 
placed in small piles until well dried out before spreading. 
The heat at first will be quite violent, frequently rising to 
120 degrees, but it soon subsides and when it recedes to 90 
degrees the seed may be planted. The importance of using 
dry soil and allowing the first rank heat to pass off is very 
great. Every season thousands of hotbeds fail of good 
results from these causes and seedsmen are blamed for fail¬ 
ure resulting from overheat, or wet, soggy soil. 
Management of the Bed JuccesT 
uniform degree of heat and moisture; keeping the soil at all 
times a few degrees warmer than the air and the careful 
“hardening off" (by exposure to the air and diminishing the 
supply of water) of the plants before transplanting into the 
open air. Simple as these may seem to be, there are many 
difficulties in the way of securing them, prominent among 
which is overheating the air under a bright sun. 
Without experience one would scarcely believe how quickly 
the temperature inside of a well built hotbed will rise to 90 or 100 
degrees upon a still, Bunny day, even when the temperature 
outside is far below freezing, or how quickly the tempera¬ 
ture will fall to that outside, if upon a windy, cloudy day 
the sash is left open ever so little. A rush of cold air driven 
over the plants is far more injurious than the same tempera¬ 
ture when the air is still. Again, in cloudy weather, a bed 
will go several days without watering, but will dry up in an 
hour when open on a sunny day. 
A p I j r is a simple construction of boards 
LOlu-rrame for wintering over young plants, 
Cabbage, Lettuce, Cauliflower, etc., and is also useful to 
protect and harden off plants from the greenhouse or hot¬ 
bed before fully exposing them in the open air. 
Select a dry, southern exposure, form a frame from four to 
six feet wide and as long as required. The back should be 
fourteen to eighteen inches high and the front eight to twelve, 
with a cross-tie every three feet. The frame may be covered 
with sash or cloth. Seeds of the vegetables to be wintered, sown 
in open border early in September, will be ready t<> plant in 
cold frames about the last of October. The soil should be well 
prepared and smoothly raked before planting. Admit air freely 
on pleasant days, but keep close in severe weather. 
These frames are particularly useful in the south and may 
be covered more cheaply with cloth shades than by sash. The 
shades are made as follows: Make light but strong wooden 
frames to fit over the bed and of a width to receive some com¬ 
mon brand of cotton cloth. The cloth may be unbleached and 
should be stretched over and securely tacked to the frames. 
We have found that Plant Bed Cloth, which we have for sale, 
is superior to any ordinary cloth for this purpose. 
rp | . • In transplanting, the main points to be 
* ranspianttng regarded are: care in taking up the 
plants so as to avoid injury to the roots, setting out as soon as 
possible to prevent the air coming in contact with the roots, set¬ 
ting firmly so as to enable the plant to take a secure hold of the 
soil and shading to prevent the hot sun from withering and 
blighting the leaves. Where a rank or soft growth of tops has 
been made in hotbed it is frequently desirable to trim off some 
of the larger leaves before taking up to transplant; this will 
retard too rapid evaporation of moisture from the plant and 
usually will prevent wilting. 
In transplanting from a hotbed, harden the plants by letting 
them get quite dry a day or two before, but give an abundance of 
water a few hours before they are taken out. It is most apt to be 
successful if done just at evening.or immediately beforeor during 
the first part of a rain, about the worst time being just after a 
rain, when the ground being wet it is impossible to sufficiently 
press it about the plant without its baking hard. If water is 
used at all it should be used freely and the wet surface 
immediately covered with dry soil. 
«r . • The best time to water plants is early in the 
VV atenng morning or in the evening. Water may be given 
to the roots at any time, but should never be sprinkled over the 
leaves while they are exposed to bright sunshine. If watering 
a plant has been commenced, continue to supply it as it is needed, 
or more injury than good will result from what has been given. 
One copious watering is better than many scanty sprinklings. 
The ground should always be stirred with a hoe or rake 
before it becomes so very dry as to cake or crack. 
