The New Jersey sweet potato house is a stone building, say 16 × 18 feet on the inside, with walls 10 feet high, and a good roof. The building is half under ground, and the earth is banked up around it. There is a passage way through the centre, and the bins for the sweet potatoes are 6 to 8 feet square and 8 to 10 feet deep. There is a door on the south side, with window above, and a stove is placed inside the building, for use when required. The walls are plastered, and the under side of the roof is also covered with lath and plaster, and the place is thoroughly weather-proof. A house of this kind will afford storage room for 3,000 or more bushels of sweet potatoes, and will keep them in excellent condition, if all details receive proper attention. The requirements for successful storage are that the tubers shall not be too hot, nor too cold, nor too wet, and that sudden changes of temperature shall be avoided. The sweet potato crop may be said to vary from 100 to 150 bushels per acre, under ordinary management, with higher results under good conditions. CHAPTER V. SASHES AND BEDDING PLANTS. [Illustration] The cost of a hot-bed sash, glazed and painted, is somewhere about $2; and such a sash can be made to earn its cost every year. The farmer who has, say, a pair of sashes for hot-bed work and another pair for cold-frame work, can turn them to very good account in the early spring, not only in starting such bedding plants as may be required in his own operations, but in producing plants for his neighbors. It costs but little more to grow 1,000 than 100 cabbage, tomato or egg plants, and the surplus above the home requirement can be converted into dollars. =The Hot Bed.=--The hot-bed is merely a board-lined pit, containing fermenting manure, with a few inches of soil on the manure, and covered by a sash. The ordinary sash is about 3 × 6 feet. A board shutter, the exact size of the sash, or a mat of straw, completes the outfit. The depth of manure, depending on the purpose in view, should be from 1 to 2 feet, the depth of soil from 3 to 6 inches, and the distance from soil to glass about 4 inches at the start. As the manure ferments the soil will sink. =The Cold Frame.=--The cold frame is merely a piece of rich, mellow soil, enclosed by boards and covered with glass. There is no bottom heat of any kind, but it is a great deal warmer than the open soil, and serves a variety of purposes. In the hot-bed, made in February or March (in the latitude of Philadelphia), all tender things may be started. The usual seeds sown here at that date on heat are cabbage, cauliflower, radish, lettuce, onions, etc., followed by tomato, pepper, celery, egg plant, etc., including flower seeds, if desired. The cold frame is used through the winter for lettuce, onions, carrots, corn salad, spinach, etc., and in spring for the reception of the things started on heat, when the time arrives for transplanting and hardening them.