THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Febeuaky 28, 1860. 
331 
the nature of the case, there must be considerable variation in 
the heat from hotbeds, according to the changes of the weather 
and the care with which covering and air giving, &c., are attended 
to. A high and equal temperature may be secured only when 
means are taken to prevent the heat being dissipated in cold, 
windy weather. I have looked at a bed at times, which for 
six weeks past has varied little from 67° in the morning, in all 
the changeable weather ; but that bed is at least three feet wider 
than the frame, and though the most of the bed is of leaves, and 
above the ground, the sides are protected by hurdles, through 
which the prunings of Laurels were thickly drawn. Fermenting 
tree-leaves are of great use in lessening labour and material in 
making hotbeds. Of themselves they never or rarely give out 
an unhealthy heat; and, therefore, when making a bed in a hurry 
I am not at all anxious to have the dung extra sweet or extra 
worked, if I can place upon the top of the whole a foot of sweet 
heating tree-leaves. Any unhealthy steam or vapour that would 
come from the imperfectly-sweetened dung would be arrested 
and absorbed by the leaves before getting into the atmosphere of 
the frame. For general modes of preparation I would, there¬ 
fore, refer to the article specified above, and others scattered 
somewhat liberally on this subject. 
For the sake of others, however, as well as our correspondent, 
who have only stable manure to go to in making their hotbed, 
I would wish them to keep in view the following facts or prin¬ 
ciples :— 
First. Other things being the same, the more droppings and 
urine there are in that stable manure, the hotter it will become 
when thrown into a heap to ferment. 
Second. Moisture and air are necessary to a continued fer¬ 
mentation. 
Third. Fermentation is just a kind of combustion or burning. 
In either case the heat produced is at the expense of the material 
that gives the heat. Wood or coal leaves the residuum of ashes, 
and dung ultimately becomes a fat unctuous earth, the remains 
in either case failing to yield more heat. 
Fourth. In making hotbeds from dung, two objects are sought 
to be gained—heat lasting and somewhat under our command, 
and heat that in its quality would not be injurious to vegetation. 
Fresh stable-dung would, by its fumes, destroy any vegetable 
confined in its vicinity, and hence 'the necessity of turning the 
heap and moistening it when too dry, in order to get the dung 
sweet; best known from the drops of water condensed above it 
being of a clear bright, and not of a yellowish colour. If this 
process be carried too far, the heap when made into a bed will 
heat violently at first, and there will be little chance of renewing 
it, because the fibre which furnished the heat from its decompo¬ 
sition will be all spent, or will be so close, that the air and its 
oxygen can gain no access to it; and the material, so far as yield¬ 
ing heat, would be like fuel lying in a furnace once burning 
but now gone out, because all draught and access of air were 
arrested. 
If the manure is thrown together, therefore, in very cold 
weather, the heating will be arrested; if it is very wet it will 
require to part with a portion of its moisture to heat kindly; 
and, if very dry, the process will be as effectually arrested, as you 
would fail to heat by hot water and the pipes empty. The great 
thing, then, is to procure the dung for a bed sweet enough and 
moist enough to keep on decomposing, and not so moist as to 
keep out air, or so decomposed that if the air could get at it 
there was nothing for its oxygen to consume and thus raise 
heat. 
For all general purposes of seeds and young plants I consider 
the first and second weeks in March quite time enough to have 
a bed ready for use. Keeping in view that the material is limited, 
and can only be procured after several weeks’ saving it, I would pro¬ 
ceed in the following manner, preparing for a one-liglit, a two-light, 
or a three-light box, according to the quantity, and circumstances, 
I shall suppose that there is a nice little heap of this material. 
Well, the first thing to do is to go over it all, and fork aside a 
few barrow-loads of the freshest and longest; then shake the 
rest all nicely, long and short, into a neat heap, and if rather dry 
water the dry places as you go along; and if wet enough already 
refrain from adding more water. When this is done, cover 
neatly all over with the long, fresh fitter. If the weather is mild, 
in eight or ten days this heap will want turning over again. 
Remove the fitter, and lay it aside, and then shake the top of 
the heap to the bottom, and the sides to the centre, and if any 
part- has heated itself dry give that part a little more water, if 
there are not already some other parts rather wet, which would 
thus neutralise it. Cover with the litter all round the same as 
before. In about eight days, or less, according to the weather, 
repeat the process; and in general, in a week more, or even less, 
this heap will be in'first-rate condition for making a bed, and 
where there was abundance, I would make all the bed of such 
well-prepared material. 
But I am supposing that there is no great amount of material, 
and that it is desirable to make the most of it. Well, I shall 
suppose two circumstances. 
First. That beds had been made last spring or summer; and 
that when these were wheeled out for manure, there were pieces 
every now and then not so decomposed as the rest, in a some¬ 
what cakey, dry condition, capable of yielding even a little heat 
when thrown together, and especially for retaining heat when 
imparted. Well, if I could get enough of such material to 
cover my beds from six to nine inches, I would not decompose 
my heap so much before making it into a bed. 
Secondly. Whilst the heap is thrown together, there will be 
fresh additions coming from the stable. These must be thrown 
into a heap of themselves, and covered with fitter the same way, 
and by the time the first heap is sweet and well worked, this 
second heap will be enough fermented to go as a bottom to the 
bed above the fitter used as covering. For such beds, at such a 
time, from twenty-four to thirty inches high at back, and from 
eighteen to twenty-four in front, will be ample if the bed extends 
a foot or fifteen inches all round the frame. Such beds will con¬ 
tinue to give out a regular heat for a long time, though changes 
of weather will have to be guarded against by extra care in 
protection. 
In such a bed before thoroughly decomposed, additional heat 
can always be obtained by allowing air and moisture to havo 
access to the freshest parts, either by means of pipes, or making 
holes, and pouring in a little water when necessary, stopping the 
holes when fermentation is going on afresh. 
For such beds, I quite approve of our correspondent’s idea 
of having the manure sunk mostly below the ground level, 
provided the bed is as much wider than the frame as stated 
above, otherwise the earth would absorb a considerable portion 
of the heat. That proviso attended to, the bed will be de¬ 
fended from cold winds and unnecessary exposure to ah-, and 
the operator can get at it more easily, as the bottom of the frame 
will be pretty well at the ground level of the place. In severe 
weather, or, indeed, at all times, a layer of straw fastened nicely 
with string and tacks against the sides and ends of the frame 
would, alike, prevent the heat from escaping, and secure neatness 
and ease of access to the inside. I agree in this sinking plan the 
more, because I consider anything in the way of putting finings 
for heat round such temporary beds to be labour and material 
thrown away, as one barrow-load of hot fermenting dung inside 
will do more good than half a dozen placed round the outsides. 
Allowing that the heat wanted in general from such a bed 
may average for bottom heat from 758 to 90°, and for top heat 
from 55® to 65 c , without sun, and the heat gets lower than we 
like, then I would take out the pots in one-light, in a mild day, 
protecting them in the meantime, and preventing the air acting 
on the plants left in jthe other fights, take out the plunging 
1 material if any, and a few inches—say, six of the sweetest dung 
I on the surface, and turn up the dung below, shaking it nicely; 
and if that is in good order, the air that has had access and will 
have occupied every cranny, will cause a fresh fermentation, and 
there will be heat enough for that fight, and a stimulus given also 
to the neighbouring one. If on turning you are a little dubious 
as to the heat, add a barrow-load or two of fresh dung that has 
been in a heap for some time though not very sweet; but in that 
case, take a littlo more of the old dung out and place the new 
nearest the bottom. Just be careful that enough of the old and 
the sweet goes on the top again to keep down all rank steams, if 
there should be any. With beds not above twenty inches to twenty- 
four inches deep of material, because it was scarce, I have kept 
up a good genial heat for pots by the above method, seldom 
doing a whole frame at a time ; but if it were a three-light box, 
doing one of the side-lights at a time, the other side-light a 
week or ten days afterwards, and the middle one last, which 
exerted an influence on both side-one s sufficient for the season. 
When everything is ready, a fight can thus be renewed almost 
as quickly as I have described the manner; and when such at¬ 
tention is made more of a pleasure than a tiresome bore, it is 
amazing what can be done with even a small amount of ferment¬ 
ing matter. By always securing sweet, rather decomposed 
material oil the surface, the under part need not be so much 
