162 Subtropical Vegetable-Gardening 



prepare a coldframe with fibrous soil and to transplant 

 the seedlings from this. When the plants have arrived 

 at the proper stage for setting out, they may be success- 

 fully removed from the coldframe in the following manner : 

 Prepare from fifty to a hundred two-pound tomato or 

 vegetable cans by throwing them in a fire to remove the 

 top and bottom and also to unsolder the side. When one 

 is ready to begin the operation of transplanting, this 

 cylinder of tin is pressed firmly into the soil in such a 

 manner as to leave the cucumber plant in the center. 

 If the soil is fibrous and moist, the plant can now be readily 

 lifted from the seed-bed in the cylinder of tin and trans- 

 ferred to the field with only slight injury. If the soil is 

 not sufficiently fibrous to be held in the cylinder readily, 

 a trowel may be inserted under it and thus aid in trans- 

 ferring the plant. Several boards large enough to hold 

 from a dozen to two dozen such cylinders may be used to 

 good advantage. A board should be placed so that the 

 cylinder holding a plant can be slipped on to it readily. 

 When the board contains a convenient number of plants, 

 it may be removed to a cart. In the field the cylinders 

 containing the plants are set out in the proper places, the 

 soil firmed around them, and the cylinders drawn out; 

 then the watering and further firming of the soil completes 

 the operation. 



Protecting cucumbers from frosts. 



In some parts of the South, large areas, sometimes ten 

 acres in extent, are put under canvas for growing lettuce 

 during the colder part of the year. When the warmer 

 season approaches, the canvas is no longer needed for 



