ROOT CROPS. 335 



experience in market gardening, can, with a boy to drop them, 

 set out nine thousand plants in a day, and it is rarely that a single 

 plant fails. 



The field being ready, the plants should now be drawn from 

 the seed-bed, the largest being selected first. The crown of the 

 plant being held in the hand, the leaves should be cut ofF about 

 six inches above the crown, and the point of the tap-root a little 

 below the swelling. The plants should be stacked up so that the 

 leaves will all lie in one direction, and should be covered from the 

 rays of the sun. Each planter should be preceded by a boy carry- 

 ing a basket of plants, which he drops down across the line with 

 the tops toward the left hand of the planter, who follows him. 

 The latter, bending his back for his day's work, picks up the plant 

 with his left hand, makes a hole with the dibber, sets the root 

 in about half an inch below the crown, and by a peculiar twisting 

 thrust of the dibber compacts the earth about the root. If there 

 are men enough, one should be detailed to follow each two or 

 three planters, pressing lightly with his foot over the hole left 

 by the dibber, so as to compact the earth still more around the 

 newly-set plant, and the operation is done. It is better, of course, 

 to select cloudy or damp weather for this work ; and it should 

 never be performed during a drought, if there is a hope of rain 

 within a week. The cutting off of the leaves, as it very much 

 reduces the evaporation of water, by the plant, enables it to 

 remain nearly dormant until its newly-formed roots have taken 

 hold upon the soil. For ten days or two weeks after trans- 

 planting, but little evidence of growth can be seen ; but from 

 that time on the growth is rapid and uniform ; so that, if the 

 land is in good condition and the plants all good, there will be 

 an equality of appearance over the whole field that cannot be 

 equaled by the most successful cultivation by means of seed 

 planting. If the dryness of the ground is very great, and it 

 is not deemed advisable to wait for a rain, the following operation 

 will be found beneficial : Take equal parts of garden loam and 

 cow-dung, mixing, if convenient, a little guano or superphosphate 

 of lime with the mass, and make it into a semi-fluid paste with 

 22 



