454 



SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part II. 



renders the roots much less liable to spring again the same season, than when they are 

 cut or even pulled up. For this sort of weeding the pincers seem well adapted.- 



2905. Thinning or reducing the number of plants on any surface, is sometimes per- 

 formed by hand, but most generally by the hoe. Thinning, to be perfectly performed, 

 ought to leave the plants at regular distances ; but as this can seldom be done, owing to 

 the irregularity with which seeds come up, whether sown in drills or broadcast, an 

 attempt to compensate the irregularity is made by a similar irregularity in the distances 

 allowed between the plants at such places. Thus, if turnips in rows are to be thinned 

 out to nine inches distance in the row, and a blank of eighteen inches or two feet occurs, 

 the last two plants on each side the blank may be left at half the usual distance, or less, 

 by which means each plant having ample room on one side, they will grow nearly as large 

 as if left at the usual distance. The same principle is to be attended to in thinning 

 broadcast crops, or trees in a plantation. Thinning may be performed in moist weather ; 

 but dryness is greatly to be preferred, especially where the hoe is used. 



2906. Planting is the operation of inserting plants in the soil with a view to their 

 growth, and the term is also applied to the insertion of seeds, roots, or bulbs, when these 

 are inserted singly. 



2907. Planting as applied to seeds and tubers, as beans, potatoes, &c. is most frequently 

 performed in drills, but sometimes also by making separate holes with the dibber. In 

 either case, the seeds or sets are deposited singly at regular distances, and covered by 

 raking or harrowing, with or without pressure, according as the soil is more or less loose, 

 and dry, or moist. In general, planting seeds or tubers in drills, or in single openings 

 made by a draw hoe or spade, is greatly preferable to planting with the dibber, because, 

 in the former case, the earth can seldom be placed in close and somewhat firm contact 

 with the seed or set ; a circumstance essential to its speedy germination, and vigorous 

 future growth. 



2908. Planting, as applied to plants already originated, is commonly termed trans- 

 j)lanting. Transplanting may be considered as involving four things : first, the pre- 

 paration of the soil to which the plant is to be removed ; secondly, the removal of the 

 plant ; thirdly, its preparation ; and, fourthly, its insertion in the prepared soil. Pre- 

 paration of the soil implies, in all cases, stirring, comminution, and mixing ; and some- 

 times the addition of manure or compost, according to the nature of the soil and plants 

 to be inserted. The removal of the plant is generally effected by loosening the earth 

 around it, and then drawing it out of the soil with the hand ; in all cases avoiding, as 

 much as possible, to break or bruise, or 

 otherwise injurethe roots. In the case of small 

 seedling plants, merely inserting the spade, 

 and raising the portion of earth in which 

 they grow, will suffice ; but in removing 

 large plants, it is necessary to dig a trench 

 round, or on one side of the plant. In some 

 cases, the plant may be lifted with a ball or 

 mass of earth, containing all or great part 

 of its roots ; and in others, as in the case of 

 large shrubs or trees, it may be necessary to 

 open the soil around them a year previously 

 to their removal, and cut the larger roots at 

 a certain distance from the plant, in order that 

 they may throw out fibres to enable them to 

 support the operation of transplantation. By 

 two years previous preparation, and the use of 



a machine {jig. 411.), very large trees of such 



kinds as stole may be removed ; but resinous trees seldom succeed. 



2909. The prejiaration of the plant consists in pruning its roots, and top or shoots In the 

 smallest seedlings, such as cabbage-plants and thorns, all that is necessary is to shorten 

 a little the tap or main root ; but in seedlings of trees two or three years old, or in 

 transplanted or large trees, several of the side shoots will require to be shortened, and 

 also the roots, always proportioning what is taken off the top or shoots, to what has been 

 taken from the root ; that the latter may be duly fitted to support the former. 



2910. The insertion of the removed plant in the prepared soil, is performed by making 

 an excavation suitable to the size of the plant's root, inserting it therein, filling up the 

 interstices with fine earth, and then compressing the whole by the hand, dibber, foot, or, 

 what is best, by abundant watering. Plants should not be inserted deeper in the soil than 

 they were before removal ; they should be placed upright, and the same side should be 

 turned towards the sun as before ; the fibrous roots should })c distributed equally round 

 the stem among the mould or finer soil and the most difficult and important part of 

 the whole, is to compress the earth about the roots without crowding them or injuring 



