Statu Agricultural Society. 481 



days after being drawn from the beds; nor will a journey of one or two 

 days' duration affect them to an amount worth speaking of. As each 

 plant bed is gone over, its cover is to be promptly replaced and well 

 wetted down again — the ground thoroughly settled back about theroot8 

 of the remaining plants. 



I may mention here as well as anywhere, that as soon as planting is 

 finished, the covers of the plant beds should all be stacked up and cov- 

 ered with boards. There will otherwise be a good deal of torn cover 

 and not a few broken frames to repair the next season. 



SETTING OUT. 



Provide a sufficient number of prods or dibbles — best made from old 

 wagon spokes, and easily shaped with a drawknife — each fifteen inches 

 long and one and a half inches in diameter. Draw to a sharp point by a 

 curved or rounding outline— if drawn straight it will wear away too fast. 

 Hound off the opposite end to accommodate itself to the palm of the 

 hand. Construct also a drag to take off the tops of the ridges, as fol- 

 lows: into a piece of four-by-six stuff fit a pair of shafts at such an angle 

 that when hitched up the bottom of the four-by-six piece shall be hori- 

 zontal. Opposite to the shafts set a pair of handles like plow handles. 

 When in working position they ought to stand at nearly the same angle 

 as the shaft. If set much steeper, the labor of elevating or depressing 

 the drag, to take more or less dirt, is increased. Each planting hand 

 needs also a sort of apron bag to contain his plants, put on like that 

 used by a carpenter for his nails when shingling; the plant bag should 

 be only six or eight inches deep, and stand well out from the man's 

 body, so as not to squeeze the plants. It is best made, perhaps, of a rice 

 mat — folding it over and over outward, as one rolls up one's sleeve. A 

 sufficient bag, however, may be made of gunny. When beginning plant- 

 ing, a glove or other protection to the palm of the hand, used for two or 

 three days, will probably save some troublesome blisters. 



These preparations being complete, convey the boxes of plants to the 

 field and set them in the shade, or cover them up from the sun. Start 

 the drag, taking off the tops of two ridges at once down to a good solid 

 breadth of moisture — but no more than necessary. Each planter fills 

 his apron with plants, roots downwards, and sprinkles lightly with 

 water. He takes his position in the furrow with the ridge on which he 

 is to plant before him extending away to his left hand; as he plants, 

 therefore, he works along leftwards. He takes a plant in his left hand, 

 adjusting its roots by giving them a fillip with his right — taking care to 

 knock off any dirt that may be adhering (but of which there ought not 

 to be any); at the same time he knocks away with his right foot an inch 

 or so of soil quite across the ridge at the point he is about to set the 

 plant, and pats it slightly so as to make it firm, but not compact it. 

 Then with his dibble makes a hole in the exact center of the ridge, say 

 three inches deep, well opened at the top by a circular movement of the 

 dibble, so that he can see the roots when he puts them in and see what 

 he is doing. The plant is to be held between the thumb and fingers of 

 the hand exactly at the crown, the leaves being within the hand, and 

 so that the backs of the four fingers may rest on the surface of the 

 earth at the left edge of the hole, preventing that side from breaking 

 up when the pressure of the dibble comes against it, while the thumb 



61— (agri) 



