The National tribune., 1893-03-09
OUR RURAL TOPICS.
Some Practical Suggestions for Our
Agricultural Readers
Heat for the Hotbed.

Tho hotbed in some form is supposed to bt
| the oldest appliance used for forcing plants ou
OF their natural season. The ancient Roman!
by its use were enabled to eat cucumbers and
grow roses just as is done to-day. The hotbeC
| is extremely useful in Spring TO create moist
genial atmosphere for growing all sorts o.
plants, including cuttings and young seedlings
or for rejuvenating old plants of certain kinds
Its chief merit consists in its comparative in
responsiveness and adaptability for service
even in the smallest garden. With the cheap
ness of glass and general construction of Ia gel
plant houses heated by steam, hot water. etc.
the hotbed possibly is not in such general use
now as half q century ago; still near nearly al
large cities there are a vast amount of early
vegetables raised in them. 1t has two partieu-
lar advantages. The heating material is no,
injured for use afterwsrd as q manure, and the
frames and sashes can be packed away when
they are not in use.
THE PRINCIPLE IS FERMENTATION.
Stable manure, tanners bark, leaves of trees
grass, and the herbaceOus parts of plants gener-
ally are all sometimes used in making the hot
bed. Stable manure of course is the easiest
obtainable and the best on the whole, but
leaves kept dry during Winter and mixed with
the manure, produce moro steady and con-
tinuous heat and hence are often used. Ashes
mixed with manure are found to promote a
cases. Stable manure in it's first fermentation
is 80 rank that it is much better to have this
take place in the heap before making up in the
hotbed. Where fresh manure only is used,
this Is rectfed by allowing the steam to pass
out by ventilation, that is, to "sweaten," before
or Immediately after the seed sowing. Then
again, a great deal depends upon the building
up of the hotbed for example, If loosely built
the fermentation is at once fiery, while if well
pressed down the heat is much more moderate
and lasting-an important feature.
HOW TO BUILD UP THE HoTBED.
We will suppose then, that for a couple of
weeks before 1t is wanted the horse manure
and other material is thrown into heap to
undergo the first fermentation. When all is
ready, if pits are to be used las explained in
Jan. %, page 53,) Ill them with the manure,
not thrown in heaps, but all broken up and
spread evenly in layers, each layer trodden
down to fair compactness. It may rise above
the pit slightly. If no pit is used, build up
evenly and regularly so that when done it will
be two to three feet above the ground. In
either case when done place on the frame and
sashes. and wait day or two for the heat to
rise again and then add the soil. If built in
this way it should be about right in tempera-
ture. This is determined by thrusting a stick
into the manure; if, On withdrawing it, a
pleasant warmth to the hand is manifest, it is
be deferred a few days. 1t is of no use to throw
frozen manure together as it may take month
to thaw out. If any part of the manure is dry,
water must be added. To be just right the
whole mass must be moist neither too wet nor
too dry.
OTHER MEANS SOMETIMES USED.
Hot water or steam pipes are occasionally
used in place of manure, but it is more difficult
to get bottom heat with them; besides. the
genial, moist, ammonacal atmosphere is en-
trely wanting. These methods are more often
used in parks and cemeteries, and among those
who grow vast quantities Of small bedding
plants, for which such places are highly useful
and save much greenhouse room. Even the
old. fashioned hues have been used by Southern
truck gardeners to q considerable extent. The
best condition for using these is on the sloping
land, having the fireplace at the lowest point
and the chimneys at the highest, running
drain.pipes under each bed for the heat.
Where wood is plenty and manure scarce this
may do, but for amateurs, with only few
sashes, there Is 10 doubt the old fashioned
hotbed is best.-Orange Judd Farmer.
Clover and the Cow Pea.
How to make these two great nitrogen col.
lectors contribute their utmost to successful
agriculture is one of the great questions for
discussion in the farming of our day. 1t is
settled fact, and therefore outside the province
of discussion, that these and their allied
legumes are able to collect nitrogen from
source independent of the soil or any manure
that may be applied to it.
Now, to enable us to get the greatest help
from these coworkers, it is well for us to COM
prehend clearly their sphere. Whatever of
truth there may be in the idea that they bring
up from the subsoil plant food by means of
their extensive roots and SO make it available
for the use of the surfacefeeding class of plants,
we must keep clearly in mind the fact that
neither clover nor the cow pea can contribute
directly q particle of either potash or phos-
phoric acid to the soil. It follows. therefore,
that while they are continually enriching it in
nitrogen. all crops that are raised solely on
turned-under clover must be decreasing the
quantity of potash and phosphoric acid in the
soil, and as no soil has yet been found which
can by the decomposition Of its natural mate
rial secure sufficient of these al-essential ele-
ments to furnish the quantity needed by
crops in land under tillage, it
must follow that the time will come when any
soil, where clover only is depended on for en-
rching it, must become impoverished, and thus
fail to produce a remunerativs crop.
It is an established fact in agriculture that
we can no more succeed in building up plant
by Substituting one element for another than we
can build our houses by like operation. A
man would be as reasonable who should at
tempt to build house by doubling the guam
tity of boards as an Offset to the absence of
nails as would one who expected to get crop
by stuffing his land with nitrogen as an Offset
for deficiency in potash or phosphoric acid.
The natural resources of the land in these two
elements may be large, and the effect of the
action of the carb0nic acid gas formed by the
inverted clover to make them digestible may
be great, but as surely as that constant SUBJ
traction will ultimately annihlate the biggest
array of figures just so surely is farm which
depends on clover only as fertilizer on the
road to Impeachment, to be handed down as
q squeezed lemon" to an unfortunate pos
terity.
A perfect complement to clover is unleached
wood ashes; this contains everything but nitro
gen, and each element in just the right proper
tion, while the clover supplies just the one
element wanted to make q manure not only
complete in its parts but perfect in its proper
tions It is safe to say that by using these two
there cannot be any such disease as
:" clover Sickness" and that land SO fed may be
cropped for all time without any danger of i'm
Where clover is wintef-killed,
which is not rare in the North, its place as a
collector can be admirably filled by
planting the cow-pea. This cannot be relied
upon to give a crop of ripe peas. Tor beans. as
we northern people would call them,) but as
far north as central Massachusetts it will vine
most luxuriantly, which is all that is needed to
replace the cloyer.-C0uat,y Gentleman.
Cotton-Geed Meal va Rran