THE FARMER'S MANUAL. o/ 



in this way, and a crop of more than fifty thousand 

 bushels. A smart lad will set half an acre per day, 

 with a girl, or boy, to drop the plants, and I had a 

 man who would set, often, an acre a day. 



Observe well what has been said about fresh earth, 

 and never forgetting this, let us talk about the art of 

 planting. We have a setting-stick, which snould be 

 the top of a spade-handle cut off about 10 inches 

 below the eye, and pointed smoothly : the planting 

 is then done in the manner of setting cabbages. 

 Choose a dry time for your transplanting, and for 

 this reason ; if your plants are put into wet ground, 

 the setting-stick squeezes the earth up against the 

 plant in a mortar like stale ; the sun comes and bakes 

 this mortar into a hard, glazed clqd ; the hole also, 

 made with the stick, is smooth upon its sides, and 

 presents an impenetrable substance to the roots and 

 fibres of the plant, and thus the vegetation is greatly 

 checked; but when plants are set in dry earth, the 

 reverse of all this is true, and the fresh earth will 

 supply proper moisture under any degree of drought. 

 The hole thus being made in dry weather, set your 

 plant without bending the point ; support it with one 

 hand, firm in the hole, and with the other hand, apply 

 the setting-stick to the earth on one side of the hole, 

 so as to form a sharp triangle with the plant, then 

 thrust the stick down a little below the bottom or 

 point of the plant, and with a little twist, press the 

 earth up to the plant, at the point, or bottom of the 

 root, and it is done. But if a vacancy remains be- 

 low the bottom of the plant, it will not thrive well. 

 This is true in all transplantings, both of roots and 

 trees." Mr. Cobbet here goes on to state his reasons 

 in favour of transplanting, which are these : 



1. " Time may be gained for one or two extra 

 ploughings, between the 25th of June and the 25th 

 of July, or even the 25th of August. 



2. " This transplanted crop may follow some other 



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