SUBSTITUTE FOB A SMALL HOTBED.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2065, 6 October 1880, Page 3

SUBSTITUTE FOB A SMALL HOTBED.

The following simple and cheap plan for raising a few tomato and other plants for an early crop has been found to answer admirably, tomato seeds having germinated under the process in five days from the time of fixing the frame, etc, ;—Plan —Get two empty kerosene tins, and the cases they were in ; sinking the latter in some sheltered spot—the warmer the better—till the top of the case is about 2in above the surface. Place a close fitting frame about 3ft by 2ft 6in, or a box with a lid to it and the bottom knocked out or a hole cut in the bottom large enough to let the top of the kerosene case through, over it and bank it round with dry earth. Now prepare your seed pans or shallow boxes, and when all is ready, fill your tins with water and put them on the fire till they boil. Lower them boiling hot into the case, and cover their tops with a piece of old carpet, and on the carpet place your seed pans, and shut the lid of your frame, covering up all round with some bags. The Lame, case, &c., will get well warmed throughout in a few hours, and by taking your tins out one at a time and replacing them boiling hot once every twelve hours, an almost uniform heat, gentle, but quite strong enough, will bo maintained day and night, as the plants, os soon as they show themselves, may easily be hardened off by admitting the light, and changing the tin less frequently, till the seedlings can bear to be removed to a cold frame or the open air. Should the apparatus be wanted for raising successive batches of plants quickly, the young plant* can easily be hardened off by placing them in a close-fitting frame, into which a hot brick is placed night and morning, taking care, however, to cover up the frame well at night, if fro»ty.