106 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, November 20, 1860. 
Management of Fermenting Materials. —The preparing 
of the fermenting material above noted, has reference chiefly to 
the plan of placing that material inside a frame or a pit, so as 
thus directly to influence by their heat the plants placed above 
them. This is the thriftiest way for getting the benefit of the 
most of the heat. One barrowload thus placed inside will have 
more influence upon the plants than half-a-dozen placed as a 
lining round the outsides of the bed under ordinary circum¬ 
stances. If the plants grown are in pots, and the heat declines, 
it would be easy in a good day to take them out; protect them in 
a similar place or shed; turn the bed over, which would most likely 
be sufficient, and, if not, add a little sweet and fresh dung, &c., a 
foot or eighteen inches from the surface. When the plants 
grown are turned out into soil in the bed, then it will be neces¬ 
sary to add linings to the sides of the bed. If there is a chance 
of steam getting in, then that dung too must be pretty well 
sweetened ; but if there is a foot or eighteen inches of soil, and 
that is well rammed to the sides of the frame and no cracks 
allowed, the steam can scarcely get access. 
lhe reasons why linings are so soon needed in such circum¬ 
stances is, that the bed is commonly made at first only a few 
inches all round larger than the frame ; and consequently, if the 
outsides of the bed are not sunk in the earth or protected, they 
soon cool, and the atmosphere within gets too cold, even though 
the roots being planted in the centre may be quite warm enough. 
Even when a lining is given in such circumstances, the new 
heat must pa ss through dung and soil before heating the 
enclosed air. When using common frames for such work, if I 
could get material at all, I found it to be ultimately a saving 
of material and labour, and every way better for the plants, to 
make the bed so wide as to leave from eighteen inches to 
twenty-four inches on each side of the frame; and as I felt pretty 
sure there would be enough of heat in the centre, the outside 
on which the frame stood was generally from six inches to twelve 
inches higher than the middle of the bed. The atmospheric 
heat was the first to get too low, but not so early as in the other 
case; and that was increased merely by placing dung all round 
the frame on the top of the sides of the bed. The boards thus 
got quite hot, and permitted of air being freely given. I have 
had Cucumber-beds thus managed that never wanted the linings 
to be turned from top to bottom during the whole season. 
Ey some means or other whatever could be got of a fermenting 
matter leaves, grass-mowings, &c., were used to keep the short 
linings up to the top of the frame or nearly so; and in dull days 
you could thus give air, and after sunny days you could moisten 
the boards and get a nice steam. These frames, ten inches in 
front, twenty at back, or a few inches deeper, were made of good 
deal, morticed at corners, and fastened to stout corner pieces 
there; and though never out of use summer or winter lasted 
some seventeen years without seeing a lick of paint. 
Pits on Arches. Some people, considering the great waste 
of time in sweetening dung, and the great amount of heat lost 
m the process, have contrived pits built with arches on the sides 
and a close floor inside of slate, stone, wood slabs, &c. to sup- 
port the soil, plants, &c. j the dung being thrown into such 
chamber and linings at once, and there worked. McPhail’s pits 
were a modification of this; only, instead of arches, the outside 
walls for half the height were pigeon-holed, and brick flues 
crossed the pit from back to front to allow the heat freely to 
pass. A cheaper and a better modification of this is to have 
the lower half of the wall built of four-inch, or brick on bed 
pigeon-holed; and three inches or so from it to have a wall 
tied here and there to it of brick on edge, or even slabs of slate, 
rising to within eighteen inches or twelve inches of the top, and 
covered there with slate or tiles. This wall was chiefly for giving 
top heat without steam. The lower part of the pit to be filled 
with faggots, logs of wood; better still with large stones, brick- 
ats, &c., to the depth of two feet and a half. No steam from the 
i ung can enter such a pit or close frame. When appearance is 
no object, we woidd build such a pit with walls of single brick 
on bed, close, using cement or strong mortar made of fresh lime 
and good drift sand ; fill the pit inside partly with stones and 
clinkers as above noted, and heat entirely by rough mounds of 
fermenting matter right up to the top of the pit, and with 
wattled hurdles to protect from the weather. In a place 
where much framing was done, the dung could be all sweetened 
round such a pit, removed, and other material of a fresh cha¬ 
racter supplied. Even here, however, a great deal of heat goes 
right into the atmosphere. _ Where neatness and economy of 
heat were alike to be combined, I would build such a pit with 
nine-inch piers every eight feet for strength ; fill the inside with 
rubble as aforesaid, having clean gravel at top to prevent soil, or 
dung, &c., filling up the open spaces ; the stones, &c., being placed 
as open as possible; and from the top of the open rubble I 
would, in the centre of each light, place two semicircular three- 
inch drain pipes with the ends upright and the flat side against 
the wall, and take them up to within nine inches of the top, 
back and front, which thus would secure a healthy top heat. 
The outside linings we would secure with neat, wooden shutters, 
two feet from the top of the wall at back, and fifteen inches in 
front ; the dung would thus be concealed, and, however it might 
sink, the heat arising would play against the wall and the pur¬ 
pose be secured until the material wanted turning or renewing. 
Sloping the Bottom of the Bed. —When beds are built 
above ground it is best to give the bottom a slope, similar to the 
frame, so as to leave the back higher than the front by a foot or 
so ; this not only keeps the bed dry, but gives the same height of' 
fermenting matter at front as at back, and allows the bed also to 
have a slope. When the bed or pit is sunk at least a half below 
the ground level which is desirable, this is of less consequence.. 
For regular ranges of pits, heated by dung, spouting should 
be provided to take away the water that falls on the glass, to 
prevent it getting into the lining, or, as in the case of frames, 
soaking back into the bed, thus giving a redundancy of mois¬ 
ture and cooling the heating matter. For frames that are move- 
able, nothing answers better than two slips of wood and the re¬ 
quisite length, and two inches and a half to three inches deep, 
and three-quarters of an inch or half an inch thick, nailed toge¬ 
ther at the sides to resemble the letter V. A little thick paint 
run along at the angle will make them watertight. We find 
that thick clay paint answers the purpose. These may either be 
fastened to the box or laid in the right direction on the top of 
the lining. 
Sections of Beds. —The following sections may make our 
meaning clearer to the uninitiated. They are all intended to 
represent frames or pits of six feet in width, though that as well 
as the height can be altered at pleasure. I have confined these to 
modes distinguished for their simplicity, believing they almost 
always answer best and with least trouble. 
Fig. 1 is a dungbed made in the usual way, with or without 
faggots, &c., to keep it open, with a frame set upon the top 
of it. The dotted lines represent the linings to be added when 
necessary. 
Fig. 2 shows a bed built as recommended, considerably 
wider than the frame, and not so high in the middle as at the 
sides, which gives two advantages—more room for earth, &c., and 
prevents so far a burning heat at the centre of the bed. These 
beds maintain a regular heat a long time, with the addition of 
the small linings at the top of the bed showed by the dotted 
lines. Of course, when the bottom heat gets too low, first one 
side of the bed and then the other is broken down, leaving enough 
for the security of the frame, and then the other side and the 
