in Gardening, beds made with fresh horse-dung, or tanners bark, and covered with glases to defend them from cold winds.

By the skilful management of hot-beds, we may imitate the temperature of warmer climates; by which means, the seeds of plants brought from any of the countries within the torrid zone may be made to flourish even under the poles.

The hot-beds commonly used in kitchen-gardens are made with new horse-dung mixed with the litter of a stable, and a few sea-coal ashes, which last are of service in continuing the heat of the dung. This should remain fix or seven days in a heap; and being then turned over, and the parts mixed well together, it should be again cast into a heap; where it may continue five or fix days longer, by which time it will have acquired a due heat. These hot-beds are made in the following manner: In some sheltered part of the garden, dig out a trench of a length and width proportionable to the frames you intend it for; and if the ground be dry, about a foot or a foot and a half deep; but if it be wet, not above fix inches: then wheel the dung into the opening, observing to stir every part of it with a fork, and to lay it exactly even and smooth on every part of the bed, laying the bottom part of the heap, which is commonly free from litter, upon the surface of the bed: and if it be designed for a bed to plant out cucumbers to remain for good, you must make a hole in the middle of the place designed for each light about ten inches over, and fix deep, which should be filled with good fresh earth, thrusting in a stick to show the places where the holes are; then cover the bed all over with the earth that was taken out of the trench about four inches thick, and put on the frame, letting it remain till the earth be warm, which commonly happens in three or four days after the bed is made, and then the plants may be placed in it. But if your hot-bed be designed for other plants, there need be no holes made in the dung; but after having smoothed the surface with a spade, you should cover the dung about three or four inches thick with good earth, putting on the frames and glases as before. In making these beds, care must be taken to settle the dung close with a fork; and if it be pretty full of long litter, it should be trod down equally on every part. During the first week or ten days after the bed is made, you should cover the glases but slightly in the night, and in the day-time carefully raise them, to let out the steam; but as the heat abates, the covering should be increased; and as the bed grows cold, new hot dung should be added round the sides of it.

The hot-bed made with tanners bark is, however, much preferable to that described above, especially for all tender exotic plants and fruits, which require an even degree of warmth to be continued for several months, which cannot be effected with horse-dung. The manner of making them is as follows: Dig a trench about three feet deep, if the ground be dry; but if wet, it must not be above a foot deep at most, and must be raised two feet above the ground. The length must be proportioned to the frames intended to cover it; but it should never be less than ten or twelve feet, and the width not less than fix. The trench should be bricked up round the sides to the above-mentioned height of three feet, and filled in the spring with fresh tanners bark that has been lately drawn out of their vats, and has lain in a round heap, for the moisture to drain out of it, only three or four days: as it is put in, gently beat it down equally with a dung-fork; but it must not be trodden, which would prevent its heating, by setting it too close: then put on the frame, covering it with glases; and in about ten days or a fortnight it will begin to heat; at which time plunge your pots of plants or seed into it, observing not to tread down the bark in doing it. These beds will continue three or four months in a good temper of heat; and if you stir up the bark pretty deep, and mix a load or two of fresh bark with the old when you find the warmth decline, you will preserve its heat two or three months longer. Many lay some hot horse-dung in the bottom of the trench under the bark; but this ought never to be practised unless the bed is wanted sooner than the bark would heat of itself, and even then there ought only to be a small quantity of dung at the bottom. The frames which cover these beds should be proportioned to the several plants they are designed to contain. If they are to cover the ananas or pineapple, the back part should be three feet high, and the lower part 15 inches: if the bed be intended for taller plants, the frame must be made of a depth proportionable to them: but if it be for sowing of seeds, the frame need not be above 14 inches high at the back, and 7 in the front; by which means the heat will be much greater.

HOT-House. See Stove and Hypocaustum.