Place the frame on this, and bank up the outside with more manure. Cover the manure with earth.
Fill the inside with earth six or eight inches deep, and water with a sprinkler.
Put on the sash, and place a thermometer inside. It may go up to 120 degrees, but in a few days will come down to 90 degrees, when the bed is ready for planting.
Seeds may be planted direct in the soil, but a more convenient plan is to fill shallow boxes, called “flats,” with soil, and plant the seeds in them, placing them in the hotbed. They are easily lifted if a slat is nailed across the middle, when the young plants are ready for transplanting into the—
Cold Frame
The frame and glass sash of a cold frame are just like those of a hotbed, but the cold frame is placed on the ground without fresh manure, sometimes without any manure.
Usually, the earth is dug up to the depth of a foot and mixed with well-rotted manure and the frame placed on top of it. Soil is also banked up on the outside for protection from cold winds.
An old cooled off hotbed is really a cold frame.
A cold frame is always useful for—