The Newberry Herald

Farm, Garden & Household

APRIL.

TRANSPLANTING.

In order to insure plants against wilting when transplanted, they may be grown, says the New England Farmer, in pots, but this involves a good deal of expense and a simpler method is in use among the gardeners for moving such tender plants as cucumbers, melons, summer squashes, lima beans, etc.

The plants are pricked out under glass, in groups of four plants each, the hills being nine inches square or thirty-two to a sash. When grown so as to require transplanting, which will be in about two weeks, or by the time they begin to run, have the ground ready for them, and wet them down well over night so that the earth will cling to the roots. Have ready a few square rings of sheet zinc, nine inches square made by folding a strip of zinc three inches wide and three feet long, into a nine inch square prism, without top or bottom, and soldering the edges together. Take a ring and press it down into the earth around one of the hills; then run a spade under it, and lift the hill, ring and all, on the spade, and carry it to its destination, where a hole is made with a hoe to receive it; place the cluster of plants on the spade in the hole, draw the earth around the ring and remove first the spade, then the ring, and the work is complete. These tender plants cannot be transplanted safely to the open field much before June 10. But cucumbers are transplanted thus under glass whenever the glass is ready for them. In transplanting vines choose a hot day, and avoid rainy, cold weather. If well moistened before transplanting, and carefully handled, they will not wilt much, but may need a little shade for a few days. The transplanting of celery, cabbage and cauliflower plants is simple and easy enough in the cool, moist weather of early spring, but in the hot weather of midsummer, requires some skill. Much depends in having the land in which the plants are to be set thoroughly fine; if coarse or lumpy it is much more likely to dry up and destroy the plants. Choose, if possible, a cloudy day after rain, but if this can't be done, and if the weather is dry and hot, the plants must be watered. Keep the roots wet while setting them, and water every day till they grow or till rain comes. This is laborious work, where large fields are set, but is often the only way to be sure of a crop. To make the earth fine for setting plants it may be thrown into drills with a plough and then raked down; or, if it is desirable to set the plants low, as in the case of celery and cauliflowers, the rows are marked first with the wheel marker and the spots where the plants are to be set made fine by chopping with a hoe.