ADVANTAGES OF TRANSPLANTING 59 



cloth, drive four stakes down to within six inches of the ground, and 

 shade with the screen. These different methods are to keep the soil from 

 baking on top, for as the seed is sown very shallow it germinates and the 

 ground is baked, which kills the small plants. If you use a screen it will 

 act as a protection from late frosts." 



SPECIAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR GROWING SEEDLINGS. 



For the protection of seed from unfavorable conditions during germina- 

 tion and the seedlings from intrusions of various kinds during their early 

 life, arrangements for covering are approved by long experience and they 

 are of such a simple character that any amateur can easily provide them. 

 They all relate to growth under cover and involve the same principles 

 which have been suggested in the protection of seeds and seedlings in the 

 open ground, and are designed to attain similar results. They also involve 

 the art of transplanting as in many ways superior to sowing seeds in place, 

 and though this is often a bugbear to amateurs, it should be resolutely 

 mastered for there is great satisfaction in it. 



Growing Plants For Transplanting. One who does not understand 

 and practice the growth of plant seedlings on the side, for transplanting to 

 permanent place several weeks later, makes his gardening harder and less 

 likely to succeed. It seems, of course, easier to scatter the seed where 

 the plant is desired to grow, and that is the act which many are apt to 

 think comprises gardening art. Truly, however, this is not, on the whole, 

 good gardening at all, though it may be the best for some plants and for 

 some conditions. 



The plant as it comes from the seed is least able to withstand adversity. 

 Unfavorable temperatures, irregular moisture, thirst or suffocation by 

 crowding of weeds, loss of root-hairs by burning crusts or by mud causing 

 decay, injury by marauding insects all these and others are perils of 

 seedlings in the open ground. From the point of view of the grower 

 other considerations intrude; delay in waiting for temperature and moist- 

 ure conditions which favor the start from the seed, causing the loss of 

 that most desirable thing, the earliest possible growth which is consistent 

 with safety; increased tillage of a larger area, which requires a maximum 

 of labor and cost when seedlings are to be guarded from injury by tools; 

 loss of opportunity to clean the land and to secure deep and complete 

 working of the soil which a plant needs to make its quickest and freest 

 growth, as soon as it has passed the perils of childhood as a seedling. 



These general reflections are indulged in to emphasize the fact that the 

 amateur flower-grower should be a persistent transplanter and to meet a 

 common misconception that a plant is always better if the seed is placed 

 where the plant is to grow. The facts are otherwise. Transplanting is a 

 great help in saving time and in keeping the garden continuously beautiful. 



