Ventilate the bed every day to allow steam and ammonia fumes to pass
off.
"The soil inside should be equal parts of garden loam and
well-rotted barnyard manure. Tramp well the first layer of three
inches. To make it entirely safe for the plant seeds in the hotbed,
add another layer of the same depth. Use no water with garden loam
and manure if you can possibly help it."
"Before sowing any seeds put a thermometer in the bed three inches
deep in the soil. If it runs over 80 degrees Fahrenheit, do not sow.
If below 55 degrees it is too cold; you will have to fork it over
and add more manure. If the bed gets too hot, you can ventilate it
with a sharp stick by thrusting it down into the soil."
Another way that the old gardeners have to make a hot bed is with
fire. On a large scale this is cheaper, though more complicated than
the fermentation of manure. In making this kind choose your location
and build the frames as before. "Cut a trench with a slight taper
from the east end of the plot to the end of the hotbed, and on under
the ground to about four feet beyond the end of the bed.
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