Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 February 1913 — THE FARM GARDEN HOTBED INCREASES PROFIT [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE FARM GARDEN HOTBED INCREASES PROFIT

By C..E. Brehm, Department of Horticulture, Purdue University School of Agriculture. Purdue University Agricultural Extension.

The hotbed is a necessary adjunct to any farm or suburban garden. It Is true that practically all vegetables that are forced in hotbeds can be grown outdoors, yet there are many advantages in the. use of the hotbed Vhich will more than repay the small extra expense and labor involved in their usage. By forwarding the crops In this way two or more crops can be grown on the Bame ground in the same Beason, with systematic successive cropping. At the same time the most important advantage is that the farmer has vegetables earlier in the season than his neighbor who trusts to sowing his seed outdoors. The hotbed should be located where it is convenient to farm buildings and where water is available. It should have a full exposure to the south in order that the sun’s ray a-may do the greatest amount of good. Protection from the north, either by a board fence or a building, vplll give more satisfactory results. In preparing the hotbed, the pit should be dug in the fall before freezing weather sets in and then mulched with a straw and manure to prevent freezing. It will then be ready for use early in the spring before the frost is out of the ground. The soil should also be prepared and mixed in the fall and placed near the beds and mulched over with manure. In fact, all operations should be performed in the fall before it is cold and materials so protected that the work may start off in the spring without any delay. The pit is dug 18 to 24 inches deep and 6 feet wide. It may be any length, dependent on the needs of the individual. However, three hotbeds will be sufficient for the ordinary farmer's garden, which would make the length of the pit nine feet. Sash come in sizes three feet wide and six feet long, the width of the pit being dug to accommodate the length of the sash. The interior of the pit is boarded up with one-inch pine lumber, the north side of the bed being six inches higher than the south side. This gives a slope of six inches to the south. The soil for the hotbeds in which the seeds are td be sown should not only be rich in plant food, but it should be loose and friable. It should be of such a nature that the water will permeate it uniformly throughout and yet the surface should dry out readily. Thfe soil should also retain sufficient moisture to Bupply the needs ,of the plant and at the same time should never pack or become cemented together when watered. Such a soil can prepared by skinning sods from some old pasture. These sods are piled in tiers four to six inches thick and alternated with layers of stable manure of the same depth. The compost pile should be allowed to stand for a year and during the latter part of this period when the sods and manure have become thoroughly rotted, the pile should be forked over two or three timeß in order to break up the sods and manure and further reduce the mass to as fine a texture as possible, Another method of preparing the soil is to take the manure from the stable and pile it in low, flat piles four feet deep. Turn it frequently to prevent heating. As soon as danger of heating is past, allow it to stand until it is thoroughly rotted. Then during the latter part of the year fork It over several times In order to re-

duce it to as fine a texture as pow sible. This manure should always be piled on sods so that the sods absorb the liquid ingredients and none leach away. This rotted manure is then mixed in equal parts with ordinary garden loam. Such a soil will give excellent results. Never use fresh manure mixed with the soil, in which you expect to sow seeds, for the results are uncertain. About the first of March is the time to start the hotbed, if the earliest vegetables are desired. Preparations should commence about two weeks before the seeds are to be sown. Manure from the livery stable is most satisfactory for hotbed use. This should be firmly tramped in piles. In a few days it will heat up and the pile should then be forked over again and the outside turned in. In three or four days the manure will begin to heat up. As soon as the manure starts to ferment after being forked over throw it in the bed. Care should be taken in filling the bed that the manure is tramped in firmly. Particular attention Bhould be paid to the sides and corners. The aim should be to have the surface smooth and even. After the manure is in the pit, screen the soil so that there are no large lumps in It and cover the surface with soil to a depth of six inches. In a to 116 to 120 degrees. However, it will drop in about a week to 95 degrees and when the temperature gets that low the time has arrived for the sowing of the seed. For this reason a soil thermometer should be kept in the bed so that the temperature may fie known at all times. Some glass covering will be necessary for the beds. There are two kinds of sash —the single glass sash and the double glass sash, the latter being commonly known as the double daylight sash. The single glass sash are easier to handle since they are not so heavy and are not so expensive-. However, at night they must be covered with a mat in order to prevent the escape of heat from the interior. The double daylight sash have two thicknesses of glass With a dead air space between. They retain more heat in the bed, but are heavier to handle and the breakage when such occurs is twice as heavy and therefore more expensive. They will keep the beds from eight to ten degrees warmer than the single glass sash. Every farm garden should have Its hotbeds. They are inexpensive and add materially to the garden yields and profits. Extend your garden season by means of the hotbed so that you may have Christmas lettuce next season.

Bow the Seed in Drills for All Transplanting Stock. Crops to Be Matured In the Bed Are Generally Reset at Least Once, and Are Spaced.

Thoroughly Compost All Manure Used In the Garden Hotbed So as to Se cure a Maximum and Uniform Heat