ur experiment with hotbeds, if you are
interested to know whether they really pay.

The exposure for the hotbeds should be where the sun will strike most
directly and where they will be sheltered from the north. Put up a fence
of rough boards, five or six feet high, or place the frames south of
some building.

The coldframe is constructed practically as in the hotbed, except that
if manure is used at all it is for the purpose of enriching the soil
where lettuce, radishes, cucumbers or other crops are to be grown to
maturity in it.

All this may seem like a lot of trouble to go for such a small thing as
a packet of seed. In reality it is not nearly so much trouble as it
sounds, and then, too, this is for the first season only. You will have
a well built frame lasting for years--forever, if you want to take a
little more time and make it of concrete instead of boards.

But now that the frame is made, how to use it is the next question.

The first consideration must be the soil. It should be rich, light,
friable. There are some garden loams that will do well just as taken up,
but as a rule better results will be obtained where the soil is made up
specially, as follows: rotted sods two parts, old rotted manure one
part, and enough coarse sand added to make the mixture fine and crumbly,
so that, even when moist, it will fall apart when pressed into a ball in
the hand. Such soil is best prepared by cutting out sod, in the summer,
where the grass is green and thick, indicating a rich soil. Along old
fences or the roadside where the wash has settled will be good places to
get limited quantities. These should be cut with considerable soil and
stacked, grassy sides together, in layers in a compost pile. If the
season proves very dry, occasionally soak the heap through. In late fall
put in the cellar, or wherever solid freezing will not take place,
enough to serve for spring work under glass. The amount can readily be
calculated; soil for three sash, four inches deep, for instance, would
take eighteen feet or a pile three feet square and two feet high. The
fine manure (and sand, if necessary) may be added in the fall or when
using in the spring. Here again it may seem to the amateur that
unnecessary pains are being taken. I can but repeat what has been
suggested all through these pages, that it will require but little more
work to do the thing the best way as long as one is doing it at all, and
the results will be not only be