210 Effective Farming 



the slips only after a rain ; others do not wait for a rain, but 

 water the plants soon after they are set. 



Preparatory to transplanting the slips, the soil is smoothed 

 and, when hand transplanting is practiced, the rows are marked 

 in some way in order that the plants will stand a uniform dis- 

 tance apart. One person then drops the plants one at a time 

 near where they are to be planted and another follows and 

 places them in the soil. A dibble or small trowel is often used 



FIG. 92. Sweet potato slips in hot-bed ready to pull for transplanting. 



in setting the plants, but many growers, to avoid bending over and 

 straightening up as each plant is set, make use of long-handled 

 tongs and a lath sharpened to a flat point. In setting with the 

 tongs and sharpened lath, the former is held in one hand and the 

 latter in the other. Each slip in turn is picked up with the tongs, 

 a hole is made in the ground with the sharpened stick, the slip 

 placed in it, and the soil settled about the plant with the stick 

 or the foot of the one doing the setting. Transplanting machines 

 (Fig. 93) are now in common use in regions where sweet potatoes 

 are an important crop. One of these machines sets and waters 

 the slips as fast as a team can pull it across the field. 



