HOT BED. The laying up of heated manure or other vegetable substances, which will fer ment in such a manner that heat will be given up slowly, continuously, and for a considerable length of time, is termed a hot bed. The bed or beds are then surrounded by a frame, and covered with sashes filled with glass, for the double purpose of drawing the heat of the sun and retaining it, and also the heat of the fermenting manure. Market gardeners in the North, when lettuce and that class of plants are to be forced all winter, make the walls of their beds permanent, double, and lined with tan bark. A situation being selected, so the bed may be sufficiently underground, and so the sash will be just above the surface on the lower side, and about four or five inches higher at the back. In these the young plants are pricked out about the first of December, and successively as they mature for market. Upon the farm, the first of March' is time enough to construct the hot bed. Select fresh manure from the horse stable, long and short together, and lay it into a compact heap near where you want your bed, and in sufficient quantity so it will be about sixteen inches thick when properly laid and compacted in the bed. gat the end of three days, it throws up a strong heat, turn it over evenly, and again put it in a compact heap. If it still shows a rank heat, turn it again; if not, it is ready for use. If the land is dry, so that no water ever stands within two feet of the surface, excavate to the depth of a foot, and a trifle larger than the dimen sions of the frame, throwing the most of the earth to the back of the bed. Upon some still day proceed to lay the manure in the bed, shak ing out all hard lumps, patting it down from time to time with the back of the fork, to dis cover the soft places, and keep all uniform. So proceed until you have the bed finished. Put on the frame, cover the manure with three inches of the best soil you have; place the glass on the frames, and, as soon as the heat begins to rise, add five inches more of rich, friable soil. When the thermometer shows a heat of 70° or 80°, the bulb being placed in the soil, the bed is ready to plant. The frame may be made of rough boards, —the back six inches higher than the front, to allow the water to pass freely off the glass. The frame should be nailed to two-by-four posts at the corners, and stayed at proper intervals by nailing a strip two inches high by one inch wide on an inch strip three inches wide,—the last made flush with the top of the frame. These will make way for the sash to rest and slide upon. The sash shpuld be made of the best clear two-inch stuff, and to accommodate four rows each of eight-by-ten glass. No cross-bars should be allowed,—one light of glass being lapped over another, commencing at the bottom and working toward the top. The glass should be well tinned and puttied, and the sash should have not less than two coats of good paint. The soil exca vated should be used to bank against the frame, even with its top, and, if the soil is wet, the bed must he made entirely above ground; in which case, the manure must be laid a foot wider, al around, than the frame, and the whole banked up with manure flush with the top of the frame. The day heat, when it rises, should mark about 70° or 80°. This temperature you can raise or lower at will by keeping the glass close, or giving air. The temperature for cabbage, cauliflowers, lettuce, radish, celery, and other hardy plants, should not be greater than about 70°. For all tender plants, as the egg-plant, tomato, melon, pepper, cucumber, etc:, the heat may go to 80°. At night the temperature should not go below 50°, although 40° or lower will not injure hardy plants. Before sowing the bed, the earth must be raked in the nicest manner, throwing out all lumps, however small, and bringing the soil per fectly smooth and into fine tilth; and with a slight descent from rear to front. Pro ceed to sow your seed in regular drills, two and one-half or three inches apart. Sow thickly, for the surplus is easily thinned out, and you can not afford to have a poor stand. Cover the seed heretofore named, except cucumber, about three eighths of an inch, and cucumber one-half inch, deep. Water well after sowing, from a pot with a fine nose, so as not to drench or wash the sur face, sufficiently so the water will reach the bot tom of the soil, and yet not run down into the manure beneath. Sow all seeds of hardy plants, following one after another, so that the hardy and the tender sorts may' not be together, for the hardy must have more ventilation and much less heat than the tender. The ability of plants to stand cold, beginning with those most hardy, is as follows: Radish, cabbage, cauliflower, let tuce, celery, tomato, cucumber, and egg-plant. This latter is injured by a temperature much below 50°, and either of the three preceding will be killed by white frost. Always have your drills run across the sash—never lengthwise. Water always with tepid, water, or with that about the temperature of the bed. Water often and lightly while the plants are young, and more seldom and more heavily as they attain age and size; and preferably, in the afternoon, when the glass is to be closed for the night. Remember, in watering, that the heat of the soil, the ventila tion, and the leaf-surface of the plants, com bined, are the measure of the evaporating power. Give air at all favorable times—always, how ever, avoiding a direct current upon the plants. This may easily be done by tilting the sash against the wind, rather than toward it; and the stronger the force of the wind, the less will be the opening needed for ventilation. In fact, when the wind is strong, little or no ventilation will be required during the early part of the sea son. Close the bed early so the heat may be raised sufficiently to carry it through the night; and, unless safely protected, against dogs, shut ters must be used in addition to the other cover ing at night. Straw or cane mats are the best
covering, but slough-hay, laid over the glass and held in place with boards, is clean and easily raked off. After raking, the glass should always be swept with a broom. Thus we have protected extensive ranges of glass from frost, getting a full supply of lettuce and other vege tables from February until they could be raised in the open air. Rain must never be allowed to fall on the soil of the bed, except it be, perhaps, late in the season when the weather is fairly settled; and it is better not then, since the bedis always much warmer than the atmosphere, and there is danger of chilling the plants and drenching the soil. Weeding the bed and thinning the plants must be done with the thumb and forefinger, and nothing more will be needed for loosening the earth between the rows than a steel-tined fork and a table-knife. Thin the plants before they are crowded, to about half an inch apart. This is essential, since, if it be not done, your plants will draw, and will become spindling, and weak. Once they get drawn it will be difficult thereafter to make them again strong. In this connection, it will be proper to say that the closer you can grow the plants to the glass the better. It is usual, when the bed is planted, to have the glass about ten inches above the earth. This is a good distance, and if provided for, it will not be. necessary to raise the sides of the frames, to give more room, until the last trans planting, when this becomes necessary, the whole, frame and sashes, can be pried up, and suitable blocks laid underneath at proper inter vals. „We advise that you buy tomato, egg plants, etc., if possible, of some market gar dener. If so, take them when the plants are about two inches high. Twenty-five to fifty, each, of tomato, peppers, and egg-plants will be sufficient. One hundred and fifty celery plants will also be ample for an early supply of this vegetable. The others named heretofore, and such as you may wish, you may easily raise yourself. To prick out plants in the bed, take an inch piece, three inches wide, and of a length so that it will easily go in the bed when a sash is removed, or, say, a little shorter than the width of the sash. Along one edge bore three-eighths inch holes, two and one-half inches apart, and along the other edge bore holes of the same size three inches apart. Into these holes fit pins to projedt three inches. This is your marker, and will enable you to plant correctly two and one half and three inches apart; or double these distances, prepare, also, a board, a foot wide, that will go easily into the bed,—this to stand on while planting. Have also pieces of siding, five and six inches wide, and you are ready for planting. Put in the wide board to stand on; lay down the five or six-inch strip, as the case may be, six inches from the rear of the bed; draw a light drill as a guide on each side of the strip; turn the strip over twice, mark again, and so prepare six drills. With the marker, press the holes for the plants, and, if the plants are to be two and one-half inches each way, make inter mediate marks between those already made. The plants for pricking out are best kept in a basin of water, since it insures their remaining fresh. Take a plant by the top; drop the root into one of the holes, a little deeper than it naturally grew, commencing at the left side of the bed,—enlarging the hole for the plant, if necessary. Press the earth about the root, by inserting the forefinger of the right hand just beyond the plant, and pressing to the plant; or make a 'pointed dibble of the proper size, with which to enlarge the holes, and press the earth to the plants, thrusting it somewhat diagonally, and below the bottom of the plant, in pressing the earth to them, being careful to get the earth firmly about the roots. Water as you proceed, and shade from the sun, always selecting, a mild, still day for the work. When one sash is planted, cover close with the glass, and give no air until they cease to wilt under the sun. Cover with a piece of thin muslin, or a little hay, so as to admit light, but not the direct rays of the sun, and you will soon have your plants grow ing nicely. All this may seem tedious, but it is more quickly accomplished than described ; indeed, an expert hand will plant about 'as fast as one can count. Economy of space in forcing plants is a matter of especial importance. After a due knowledge of the proper conditions and • treatment of plants is acquired, the next thing of consequence is this question of diktances at which plants shall be grown. Lettuce is the principal crop raised. It is not only a fashion ' able salad, but also one of the most grateful to the palate. Five inches each, way between plants is ample, and will give milder and more succulent heads than will a greater distance; and yet the most of gardeners persist in giving six inches, and many of them even eight inches of space. Let us figure a littleion this: A sash six feet long by three feet four inches wide will give 2.880 square inches. Plants five inches apart will occupy, each, twenty-five square inches of space. Thus, in a sash, you may get 115 plants. At Six inches apart; you get eighty plants; and at eight inches apart, you have only forty-five plants. Thus you have more than two and a half times the number of plants at the lesser distance than you have at the greater. And, of course, you increase the value of your glass nearly in propor tion to these distances. So, where the one sys tem might actually run you in debt, the other would give you ample profit. So with all other plants. The closer you grow them, transplant ing always before they crowd each other, the greater the profit.