SASHES AND BEDDING PLANTS.
[Illustration]
The cost of a hot-bed sash, glazed and painted, is somewhere about $2;
and such a sash can be made to earn its cost every year. The farmer
who has, say, a pair of sashes for hot-bed work and another pair for
cold-frame work, can turn them to very good account in the early
spring, not only in starting such bedding plants as may be required in
his own operations, but in producing plants for his neighbors. It
costs but little more to grow 1,000 than 100 cabbage, tomato or egg
plants, and the surplus above the home requirement can be converted
into dollars.
=The Hot Bed.=--The hot-bed is merely a board-lined pit, containing
fermenting manure, with a few inches of soil on the manure, and
covered by a sash. The ordinary sash is about 3 x 6 feet. A board
shutter, the exact size of the sash, or a mat of straw, completes the
outfit. The depth of manure, depending on the purpose in view, should
be from 1 to 2 feet, the depth of soil from 3 to 6 inches, and the
distance from soil to glass about 4 inches at the start. As the manure
ferments the soil will sink.
=The Cold Frame.=--The cold frame is merely a piece of rich, mellow
soil, enclosed by boards and covered with glass. There is no bottom
heat of any kind, but it is a great deal warmer than the open soil,
and serves a variety of purposes.
In the hot-bed, made in February or March (in the latitude of
Philadelphia), all tender things may be started. The usual seeds sown
here at that date on heat are cabbage, cauliflower, radish, lettuce,
onions, etc., followed by tomato, pepper, celery, egg plant, etc.,
including flower seeds, if desired.
The cold frame is used through the winter for lettuce, onions,
carrots, corn salad, spinach, etc., and in spring for the reception of
the things started on heat, when the time arrives for transplanting
and hardening them.
Properly-managed sashes will do a great deal toward the production of
early market crops, and profits not infrequently depend upon the item
of earliness.
The one thing for inexperienced persons to learn about sashes and
their uses is the imperative necessity of free ventilation whenever
the sun shines on the glass.