Daily Kennebec journal., 1875-04-06

Hot Beds and How to Manage Them.

| HOT bcOS anu HOW u manage Imem.
Hot-beds want as much daily attention
as a milk COW. While their season lasts,
some little time must be spent upon them.
or all the work Of their preparation is of
no value. The preparation is easy. The
principal expense is the sash. There have
been many attempts to use substitutes for
glass, but they are generally failures.
There is no article so cheap, nor so aura-
BILE, nor so satisfactory. The sashes are
usually made six feet long by four feet
wide. The beds are made large enough
to extend a foot to eighteen inches out
side of the box or frame in which the sash
is placed; single sash will give enough
early cabbage plants and lettuce to sup
ply an ordinary garden. Usually, how :
| ever, frames are composed of two or three
| sashes, so that they are six feet wide by
eight or twelve feet long. The frame it.
self is rough box that should be made of
one and one-half or two inch stuff, with
the back side eighteen to twenty inches
high, and the front twelve to fifteen
inches.
The preparation for the bed is simple.
Some dig a square pit to put the bed in,
but this is not necessary. The vegetable
market gardeners generally level Oft the
ground, and extend their beds Just as far
as they have glass to cover them. The
manure used generally has large proper
portion of horse dung in it, especially if
great or quick heat is wanted for forcing.
But the ordinary farm. yard manure, with
a few loads of horse manure mixed with
it and the cleanings of the poultry house.
will make good bed that will give mod
crate heat for long time. and is better
for an ordinary villa garden. Besides.
such bed requires less attention and
skill in the management. II the bed con-
sists of three sashes, or is twelve feet long,
| there will be needed about four good loads
of manure. The custom is to pile the
manure lightly in heap or heaps close
| to the place where the bed has been staked
out. and to let it remain for few days
till it shows that it is beginning to heat.
Then the manure is laid down in bed
till it is fully two feet high, treading it
level and even. Then the frame is put on
with the sashes After the frame is put
on, Il layer Of sand, if convenient and
handy, about three inches, may be spread
in the inside of the frame. In day or
two, bed of six to eight inches of fine
garden soil should be put in and levelled,
and pressed down as firm as possible. In
the meantime the frame must be banked
up on the outside with manure all round,
and the bed is ready for the seed. If the
soil is clean and free from seeds of weeds
or grass as it should be, the seeds may be
Immediately sown; but if not, then it is
better to wait till they start and the weeds
are killed. The frame is then all ready
to grow whatever seed may be sown.
| Now, it is after this is done that to Sc
cure success the hot-bed requires daily at
tention. We should say, however, before
proceeding farther, that the locality Of the
bed should be in sheltered situation,
| where it can face the south or southeast.
The principal attention is to supply the
young plants. after they are started. with
water and air. The heat OF the sun
through the glass should also be modified
by shading to certain extent, and the
glass is sometimes covered with light,
thin whitewash on the under side, for this
purpose. The heat below causes rapid
evaporation, but also supplies a good deal
of moisture to the earth at first but the
heat of the glass dries it at the surface.
Water is constantly needed from a fine
rose watering pot after the plants show
themselves; but the heat, the moisture,
and the crowded state of the frame draw
the plants, and their stems are white, slen-
der tilamen,s that are tender 20 the last
| degree, and hence are useless. We want
the plants short stemmed and stocky, with
plenty of leaves. To secure this kind of
vegetation. the plants must have air. This
is where the care and skill in management
come ill., To prevent the effects of frost
or the check which the cold of the nights
will surely cause, we shut down the glass
q, nd ho oil
and warm, causes very tender growth.
In the morning, early, the first thing
done is to raise the sashes or slide them
open few inches so that the plants may
have air without being chilled. Later in
the day, as the weather may happen to be
suitable, the sashes should be thrown more
open, and as the plants show their growth
and hardness, the sashes may be COM
pletely taken off during the day, covering
only at sundown and lifting them at sun
rise. 1t is on the judgment exercised in
the treatment of the growing plants that
success depends.
AS the early vegetation is taken out, the
bed may be used to grow various other
plants, 10y skillful management. 1t is best.
however, to confine this to single sash
that may be used independent of the 9TH
er part of the bed. For instance, after the
early cabbage and lettuce plants are set
out and cleared off from under single
sash, the cucumbers and melons, which
are growing in another section, still re-
qure protection at night, though not in
the day and nothing should interfere with
them. But when the bed has been cleared.
all the ANNALS for the flower beds may be
started growing under one of the sashes.
and they will make strong, nice plants for
bedding out, and be almost ready for
flower by the time that, otherwise, we
should be only sowing the seeds if grown
in the ordinary way in the open air.
To the country house. where the garden
must furnish most Of those necessaries
which are procured in the markets by
those who reside in cities, the hot-bed
is Indispensable, and it is astonishing how
great an amount and how varied are the
products a well-maraged one will furnish
- The Garden.
| ur~mrrvm