needed, and a simple but effective hot-bed may be made by digging out a
hole of the required size and filling it with the manure. The latter
will in due time sink, when the soil may be added and the frame placed
in position. The bed should always be near the glass, and a great point
is gained if the crop can be carried through without once giving water,
for watering tends to damage the shape of the roots. No seed should be
sown until the temperature has declined to 80°. Sow broadcast, cover
with siftings just deep enough to hide the seed, and close the frame. If
after an interval the heat rises above 70°, give air to keep it down to
that figure or to 65°. It will probably decline to 60° by the time the
plant appears, but if the bed is a good one it will stand at that figure
long enough to make the crop. Thin betimes to two or three inches, give
air at every opportunity, let the plant have all the light possible, and
cover up when hard weather is expected. Should the heat go down too
soon, linings must be used to finish the crop. Radishes and other small
things can be grown on the same bed. In cold frames seed may be sown in
February.

==Warm Borders.==--In March the first sowings on warm borders in the open
garden may be made. These may need the shelter of mats or old lights
until the plant has made a good start, but it is not often the plant
suffers in any serious degree from spring frosts, as the seed will not
germinate until the soil acquires a safe temperature. All the early
crops of Carrot can be grown on a prepared soil, or a light sandy loam,
free from recent manure. The drills may be spaced from six to nine
inches apart.

==For the main crops== double digging should be practised, and if the
staple is poor a dressing of half-rotten dung may be put in with the
bottom spit. But a general manuring as for a surface-rooting crop is not