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Show Expert Outlines Plan to Build Home Hotbeds Hotbeds make possible the culture of long-season tender crops. in temperate tem-perate zones and mature short-season hardy crops several weeks earlier, ear-lier, Dr. A. L. Wilson, professor of horticulture and gardening at the Utah State Agricultural college points out. There are two general types the pit and the pile. In the pit type the manure is placed in a pit and the frame is built over it. The pit type is more convenient, requires re-quires less manure, and gives better protection. The pile type, where the hotbed frame is placed on a flat-topped pile of manure, is recommended only where soil drainage is poor. To keep out cold winds and to retain the heat, the frame should be built of good lumber and made tight. Banking around the outside with soil, straw or manure will increase the heat efficiency of the frame, Dr. Wilson stated. "The glazed hotbed sash will give better protection from- cold and will permit the proper control of temperature tem-perature and humidity," Dr. Wilson Wil-son remarked. "Straw mats, canvas covers, old carpets and even a pile of clean dry straw may be used as supplementary covers during extremely ex-tremely cold weather." "The hotbed must have some source of artificial heat. Fermenting Ferment-ing horse manure is most frequently used in Utah. Hot water, flue heat, and electric heaters may be used to heat artificially. - Electricity probably prob-ably affords the safest source of heat." Another important factor in hotbed hot-bed heating is the heat from the sun's rays, according to Dr. Wilson. The hotbed should be sloped toward the south to increase the quantity of heat obtainable from the sun. If fresh manure' is used in the preparation, it should undergo a 1 preliminary preparation before being be-ing placed in the hotbeds. Two weeks before the 'hotbed is to be built the manure should be stacked in a straight-sided flat-topped pile and allowed to heat. After heating for three or four days, the pile should be restacked so that the manure ma-nure on the outside of the first pile is placed in the center of the second sec-ond pile. This procedure produces manure of uniform heating capacity, reports show. The manure should now be placed evenly in the bed and tamped lightly. light-ly. In most sections of Utah, a depth of 18 inches will be sufficient. In some of the colder sections a depth of 24 inches may be necessary. Above five to six inches of good garden loam or . composted soil should be applied evenly over the soil. "If the manure has been prepared as described, the seeds may be planted immediately. Seeds like tomatoes to-matoes should be planted in furrows fur-rows one-fourth to three -eights inches deep. Smaller seeds like celery, lettuce and many flowers should be merely covered. The surface sur-face of the soil should be kept moist until the young seedlings emerge," emphasized Dr. Wilson. Additional information can be secured freejof -charge by writing to Dr. A. L. Wilson, professor of horticulture horti-culture and gardening at the Utah State Agricultural college. o |