12 



FARMERS BULLETIN. 



by plows and harrows or by spades and rakes, the field should be made 

 loose and smooth before transplanting, or the young plants are at a dis- 

 advantage from the very start. The writer has. seen many fields, 

 especially in Batangas Province, where young tobacco plants were 

 attempting to grow in a field filled with the hard clods of intractable clay 

 soil. Such methods are to be condemned, for plants as tender and 

 delicate as tobacco can not make a good growth in improperly prepared 

 fields. 



Often it will be found advisable to water the field before the work of 

 transplanting begins. Transplanting can be done by hand or by a trans- 

 planting machine. Such a machine can only be used on level fields free 

 from stumps, stones or large quantities of undecomposed vegetable 

 matter. By its use more satisfactory results are obtained, and large 



FIG. 2. A tobacco field covered with a cheese-cloth shelter. 



areas can be planted at much less expense than by hand-planting. A 

 transplanter is a two- wheeled machine drawn by two horses or mules. 

 One man drives, while two boys drop the plants. Plants are set with 

 mathematical regularity, at any distance desired. The machine is so 

 arranged that a supply of water is furnished at the time of planting, so 

 that the plants are thoroughly watered while being placed in the soil. 

 Machines of this character are widely used in the United States for 

 petting out tobacco, cabbage, and tomato plants, with exceptionally good 

 results. Machine-set plants start quicker and grow and mature more 

 evenly than hand-set plants. In figure 1 is shown the method of trans- 

 planting tobacco plants by machine. 



In Sumatra, where all necessary operations are carried on by hand, the 

 coolie is provided with a plant string, the same length as the field. Each 



