84 SUMMER WORK 



advantage over those who have not. A few cloudy or cool 

 days while the plants are being transferred from the field 

 to the bench is of great benefit and helps in getting them 

 re-estabhshed; it beats heavy shading and keeping the 

 stock soaked and sprayed in every way. Stock carefully 

 packed can travel easily one thousand miles and over. As 

 long as it is properly handled afterward, the plants will 

 go right ahead. All this imphes that one must be ready 

 for it. The man who, about the 30th of July, looks over 

 half rotted out benches full of old Carnation soil, and 

 begins to think about cleaning up a bit and getting slowly 

 ready for refilling them, and afterward looks around for 

 stock^such a one starts out wrong. Get the benches all 

 ready filled, and be in shape for planting when the right 

 kind of planting weather arrives, then put on every hand 

 and get the work done well and quickly. 



LIFTING THE PLANTS 



The first necessity is to have a convenient number 

 of crates 18 in. wide and 3 ft. to 4 ft. long, prepared. Some 

 careful cultivators exercise much care by covering the 

 bottoms with one or two inches of wxt moss to keep the 

 roots moist until planted in. Two men with spades dig 

 on both sides of the plants simultaneously and lift. A 

 third shakes off the soil, inserts the roots in a bucket of 

 water and places them in the crates with roots standing on 

 the moss. When the plants are lifted from the crates the 

 roots are shaken out so they will spread, and a man on 

 either side of the bench does the planting by making a 

 hole with the hand or trowel, spreading the roots out 

 evenly, bringing the loose soil around the roots, shaking 

 the plant up and down gently to distribute the soil particles 



