76 



VEGETABLE GARDENING 



plants. When cabbage plants are properly hardened 

 they take on a dull blue color that at once indicates their 

 condition to one acquainted with their peculiarities. This 

 hardening off cf the plants is accomplished by gradually 

 subjecting them to a lower temperature than that in which 

 they grow freely or by drying them a little, thus, finally, 

 nearly checking their growth. The 

 result is a sort of ripening up of the 

 tissues of the plants, and, in conse- 

 quence, they will stand great hardship. 

 Substitutes for Flower Pots. To- 

 mato cans are very convenient sub- 

 stitutes for flowerpots when plants 

 are grown for 

 transplanting. 

 The cover on the 

 end opaned may 

 be melted off and 

 half-inch hole 

 made in the bot- 

 tom for drain- 

 age. Another 

 way to use them 

 is to melt all the 

 joints and use 



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can by tying it together with a piece of wire. Thus 

 prepared the tins may be set in the hotbed or cold frame 

 and filled with earth into which the seed or the plants 

 may be placed. When the time comes for planting into 

 the open ground the tins with the plants in them may be 

 lifted with a trowel and placed in boxes, to be carried to the 

 field where the plants are easily placed in the ground. The 



Fig. 28. Transplanting aided by the Balbridge 

 transplanter, which takes up a ball of earth with each 

 plant. This shows a box of strawberry plants just 

 taken up and ready for planting out. In planting out, 

 the holes are made with the same implement. There are 

 several other similar implements for the same purpose. 



