VI.] CULTIVATION. 



a trusty person, who has strong fingers, and who 

 is not too delicate to poke those fingers down 

 into the dirt a little; for, unless you get the 

 suckers completely out from the socket, they are 

 sure to start again. 



109. The earthing up answers two purposes; 

 first, it keeps the plant stiff and steady, in case 

 of very rough winds. Blowing down is out of 

 the question ; but it is desirable that the plant 

 bhould not even lean. The other purpose is (and 

 this is the great purpose), to give the plant a 

 fresh stock of roots; for the corn-plant, like 

 the hop-bine, sends out, when earthed up, new- 

 roots from the bottom of the part thus covered 

 with the earth. Leave a corn-plant with no- 

 thing but flat hoeing, and without earthing 

 up, and you will see all round it roots coming 

 out, just above the ground, and going inune- 

 diately down into the ground. But, indeed, why 

 do we earth up kidney beans, peas, broad beans, 

 cabbages and many other garden plants ? Not 

 because the earth tends to keep them upright, or 

 because it looks pretty, but because the parts of 

 the stalks covered by fresh earth send forth roots 

 into that earth ; and if you were to earth up a 

 cabbage-plant, so as to touch the under sides of 

 the bottom leaves, you would find, by the time 

 that the cabbage had fairly leaved, roots coming 

 out all round the stem or stalk from the top to 



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