d
to give full exposure to sunshine, or for storing when the house is not
needed. Hotbed sash 3x6 feet with side-bars projecting at the ends to
facilitate fastening them in place are usually kept by dealers, who
offer them at from $1.50 to $3 each, according to the quality of the
material used.

A hot water heating apparatus is the best, but often one can use a
brick furnace or an iron heating stove, connected with a flue of sewer
or drain-pipe that will answer very well and cost much less. It requires
but 6 to 10 square feet of bench to start plants enough for an acre, and
a house costing only from $25 to $50 will enable one to grow plants
enough for 20 acres up to the stage when they can be pricked out into
sash or cloth-covered cold-frames in which they can be grown on to the
size best suited for setting in the field. When a grower plants less
than 5 acres it is often better for him to sow his seed in flats or
shallow boxes and arrange to have these cared for in some neighboring
greenhouse for the 10 to 20 days before they can be pricked out.

CHAPTER IX

Hotbeds and Cold-frames

Plants can be advantageously started and even grown on to the size for
setting in open ground in hotbeds. In building these of manure it is
important to select a spot where there is no danger of standing water,
even after the heaviest rains, and it is well to remove the soil to a
depth of 6 inches or 1 foot from a space about 2 feet larger each way
than the bed and to build the manure up squarely to a hight of 2 to 3
feet. It is also very important that the bed of manure be of uniform
composition as regards mixture of straw and also as to age, density and
moisture, so as to secure uniformity in heating. This can be
accomplished by shaking out and evenly spreading each forkful and
repeatedly and evenly tramping down as the bed is built up. Unless this
work is well and carefully done the bed will heat and settle unevenly,
making it impossible to secure uniformity of growth in different parts.

Hotbed frames should be of a size to carry four to six 3x6-foot sash,
and made of lumber so fastened together that they can be easily knocked
apart and stored when not in use. They should be about 10 inches high in
front and 16 or 18 inches at the back, care being taken that if the back
is made of two boards one of them be narrow and at the bottom so that
the crack between them can be covered by banking up with manure or
earth. In placing t