As soon as the plants are fairly up, thin them, leaving four in an inch; and stir the ground about, at the same time with your finger. This will leave in the frame from twenty five to thirty thousand plants. If you want less, sow in wide rows and thinner in the row. But, above all things, give air enough.

Do not attempt to make the plants grow fast. You are sure to destroy them, if you make this attempt. Have patience. The plants will be ready soon enough. Get them strong and green; and, to do this, you must give them plenty of air. Remember, that, out of a thousand failures in hot-bed culture, nine hundred and ninety nine arise from the giving of too little air.

Before I proceed to the time of taking the plants out of the bed, I must make a remark or two respecting shelter for hot-beds; and this leads me back to the Plan of the Garden.

In that plan is the Hot-bed Ground, No. 1, which is 70 feet by 36. The fence to the North and West is the hedge, and that to the South and East ought to be made of Broom Corn Stalks, in this manner: Put some Locust Posts along at eight or ten feet apart.

Let these posts be ten feet high and squared to three inches by three inches. Lay a bed of bricks, or smooth stones, along the ground from post to post, and let this bed be about seven or eight inches wide. This bed is for the bottoms of the Broom Corn Stalks to stand on. Go on one side of the row of posts, and nail three rows of strips, or laths (best of Locust,) to the posts.

The first row at a foot and a half from the ground; the second row at six feet from the ground; and third row within six inches of the top of the posts. Then do the same on the other side of the posts. Thus you will have a space of three inches wide, all the way along, between these opposite rows of strips. Then take fine, long, straight Broom Corn Stalks, and fill up this space with them, full and tight, putting them, of course, bottoms downwards, and placing these bottoms upon the bricks.

When the whole is nicely filled, strain a line from top of post to top of post, and according to that line, cut off the tops of the Broom Corn Stalks; and, while the fence will look very handsome, it will be a shelter much more effectual than pales or a wall; and, in my opinion, will last as long as the former, unless the former be made wholly of Locust. Stalks, rushes, reeds, straw, twigs, bows, any thing of this kind, formed into a fence, or put up as shelter, is preferable to anything smooth and solid.

Grass will shoot earlier under a bush, than under a wall, or even a house. A wall will not save your ears from the sharp winds so effectually as even a thin hedge. The American farmer knows well the warmth that walls of CornStalks afford.

However, it is not to be presumed, that a Hot-bed Ground will be made by every farmer; and, therefore, before I proceed further with my instructions about it, let me proceed upon the supposition, that the aforementioned bed is made in

some open place. In this case it will be necessary to use some precautions as to shelter.

While the dung is working, before it be made into the bed, it must, in case of very sharp frost, be covered, especially on the North and North West sides. If it be not, it will freeze on these sides, and, of course, will not ferment.

However, this is no troublesome job: you have only to throw on a parcel of straw, or stalks; and take them off again, when the frost relaxes. When the bed is made, this is what I did. I drove some stakes down, four feet distant from the bed, opposite the North Side and the West End. I tacked a pole from stake to stake; and then I placed up along against this pole, three or four rows of sheaves of tall Corn Stalks.