Chap> II.J RuTA Baga culture. 67 



c;ardens in Englaml, who knew how to plant a cab- 

 fcage-plant, so I am led to suppose, that very few, com- 

 paratively speaking, know how to plant a turnip-plant. 



79. You constantly hear people say, that they wait 

 for a shoicer, in order to put out their cabbage-plants. 

 Never Avas there an error more general or more com- 

 plete in all its parts. Instead of rainy Aveather being 

 the best time, it is the very worst time, for this business 

 of transplantation, whether of cabbages or of any thing 

 else, from a lettuce-plant to an apple-tree. I have 

 proved the fact, in scores upon scores of instances. The 

 first time that I had any experience of the matter was 

 in the planting out of a plot of cabbages in my garden 

 at Wilmington in Delaware. I planted in dry weather, 

 and, as I had always done, in such cases, I watered the 

 plants heavily; but, being called away for some pur- 

 pose, I left one row umcafcred, and it happened, that it 

 so continued without my observing it till the next dsij. 

 The sun had so completely scorched it by the next 

 night, that when I repeated my watering of the rest, 1 

 left it, as being unworthy of m> caie, intending to plant 

 some other thing in the ground occupied by this dead 

 row. But, in a few da>s, I saw, that it was not dead. 

 It grew soon afterwards; and, in the end, the cab- 

 bages of my dead row were not only larger, but earlier 

 in leaving, than any of the rest of the plot. 



80. The reason is this : if plants are put into wet 

 earth, the setting-stick squeezes the earth up against 

 the tender fibres in a mortar-like state. The sun comes 

 and bakes this mortar into a sort of glazed clod. The 

 hole made by the stick is also a smooth sided hole, 

 which retains its form, and presents, on every side, an 

 impenetrable substance to the fibres. In short, such as 

 the hole is made, such it, in a great measure, remains, 

 and the roots are cooped up in this sort of well, instead 

 of having a free course left them to seek their food on 

 every side. Besides this, the fibres get, from being wet 

 when planted, into a small compass. They all cling 

 about the tap-root, and are stuck on to it by the wet 

 dirt ; in which state, if a hot sun follow, they are all 

 baked together in a lump, and cannot stir. On the 

 contrary, when put into ground vmvet, the reverse of 



