ore covering up, for about a
week or ten days, which will be the means of keeping the rankness down,
and causing a sweet steam heat to rise.

As the lining settles, press it down with a spade next the box, and add
more litter upon the top, which should be done every other day,
observing that when you increase one lining to have the dung in
readiness for the next; each lining not being calculated to last more
than a month or five weeks; though the back one will not want renewing
quite so often as the front. When you apply the second front lining, it
will be necessary to bore the bed with a hedge-stake or mop-stick,
making five holes to a three-light box; that is, one under each hill,
and two under the bars: bore them straight rather better than half way
up the bed, so that when the second back lining is applied, holes may be
bored exactly opposite to the others. This will cause a free circulation
of the heat from one lining to the other, and prove not only of great
service in regulating the temperature of the bed, but of equal advantage
in draining off the surplus water. Take care when you add a fresh
lining, to keep the holes open.

As the linings draw the boxes down, they will require rising with boards
and bricks. In order to accomplish this, it will be necessary to provide
some small pieces of board, rather larger than a brick, placing one of
each, with a brick, under the corners of the boxes; and, as the bed
settles, increase the number of bricks. When you raise the boxes, stop
up the bed with rotten moist dung, and close up the inside about two or
three inches above the bottom of the box.

The plants should be always topped when young, at the first joint, as
before directed; then let them run two joints twice following;[4]
afterwards keep them topped at the first joint, except it be blind,
which may be easily ascertained by close examination; if you find such
to be the case, let it run another joint before it is topped.

It is necessary that the plants should be continued in leaf mould until
the middle of January, as there is no other in which they will thrive so
well at that season of the year. Their peculiar and tender nature bears
a strong resemblance to young children, in the care requisite for their
nurture and growth. They require light nourishment, that will easily
digest; and no soil is so well calculated for this purpose as
leaf-mould, mixed with a little grit; from its excellent properties in
absorbin