Fowle's New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

TOBACCO.

In England, before the acts of Parliament against the culture of Tobacco in that Kingdom, the plants were raised in hot beds, prepared in February or March, in order to have them the earlier: And if we could have the plants fit to set out, about three weeks sooner than common, our Tobacco would generally be fully ripe, before the Frost comes.

To make a hot bed,

You must provide a warm place defended from all winds, by being enclosed with a pale made of reeds or straw, (or boards may do as well) about six or seven feet high some distance from the hot bed; within which you must raise a bed of about two or three feet high, and three feet over, of new horse-dung of about six or ten days old, treading it very hard down on the top, being made level; and if you will, edged round with boards; lay of fine rich mould about three or four inches thick; and when the extreme heat of the bed is over, which you may perceive by thrusting in your finger, then sow your seeds; erect some forks four or five inches above the bed, to support a frame made of sticks, and covered with straw, to defend the seeds and plants from cold and wet; only you may open your covering in a warm day for an hour before noon, and an hour after. Some use glass over the hot bed and have a lid to shut down and open at pleasure, and lay mats on the lid to keep off the cold. If the ground be naturally dry, you may dig down a foot below the surface for the hot bed.