| Show importance OF HOT BED WITH vegetables it lengthens the season in which table may be supplied with garden truck how to arrange one sash hot bed feet the hot bed Is a very important part of the outfit in a well kept gar den it lengthens the season in which we may supply our tables with choice vegetables A bed feet ing four sash 36 feet gives us 48 square feet of space tb s Is enough to start all the plants of cabbage cauliflower beets celery onions to matoes egg plant and peppers that may be used in a three quarter acre garden A garde two or three hot beds and as many cold frames is a good start on the road to intensive farming there is no better way of getting the boys interested in farming than to help them make a hot bed fur nish them the best seeds you can get and turn it over to them to manage writes J W griffin in farmers ke view the best location for a hot bed is on the south side of a building a tight board fence or in a place sheltered by hot bed frame and sash a hedge row the site should be a lit tie higher than the surrounding I 1 ground to insure good drainage make an excavation a little more than six feet wide for sash of common size 24 inches deep and as long as needed to accommodate the desired number of sashes when possible make the bed running east and west as this will give the plants more dl sunshine set stakes three or four feet apart around the sides and ends of the excavation and the opening tightly with boards from the bottom clear up to hinder the in of moles rats and mice the north side should be 16 or 18 inches above the surface the south side six inches lower so as to biye the sash the needed slope to carry off the rain and snow water and to give the sun a better chance to reach the soil and stimulate the plants under the frames when the frame s in place a strip of inch board wide enough to serve as a rest for the sash edges and having an upright piece in the center to hold the sash in place Is put on the preparation of the manure Is not such a particular job as is gener ally supposed but the simple pie involved is not generally known the yeast fungus when once introduced into a manure heap suitable to its growth spreads quite rapidly and soon has the whole mass in a state of heat horse manure is the best and especially from those that have been fed rich feed such as grain bran and oil meal the bulk of manure should be composed of urine soaked straw bedding and forest leaves the leaves when once heated retain the beat much longer than a bed of straw the idea Is to get an immediate and uniform heat all through the bed the manure should be hauled di erectly from the stalls to the beds p led up in a conical heap leaving it there until fermentation has well started in before fermentation be comes too lively as indicated by es caping steam the heap should ba forked over into the frame and left in a conical heap as before until the escape of steam is again noticeable then is should be tramped into the frame evenly and perfectly sol d it the n anure is real hot the soil be put on at once but it not the sash should be put on for a few das or until the bed is well heated tl e so 1 should be five or six inches deep and should be nice and mellow rea moist and fertile it too 1 and rich it dries out rapidly and the plants as a general thing are weak and spindling caused by a too rapid growth the sash should b kept on the bed until the suil has warmed ip biffi to sprout the weed seeds then the soil should be stirred an inch or two deep so as to kill all seeds that have started and to make a nice seed bed then you are ready tor planting or sowing seed |
