180 GARDENING. 



subsequent transplanting with little, if any, injury. 

 As soon .as the frosts are over, this last operation 

 begins ; and to meet it, a trench or trenches, accord- 

 ing to the quantity of the article required, must be 

 cut from east to west, remembering to throw the 

 displaced earth on your right hand, and in such way 

 as to form an additional protection against the north 

 wind. On the bottom of the trench must be placed 

 a layer of well-rotted dung, wood ashes, and garden- 

 mould, thoroughly incorporated, and on the surface 

 of this set your plants (trimmed down to about six 

 inches in length), at the distance of six or eight 

 inches from each other. Care must be taken to fix 

 the roots, and to keep the young branches closely 

 together, the better to prevent any portions of earth 

 from lodging between them ; after which, they must 

 be watered frequently and abundantly.* The next 

 business is to earth them. Some of the French 

 horticulturists direct this to be done at a single op- 

 eration, and not till after the plant has acquired its 

 full size ; but the more approved method is to do it 

 gradually and at different times. The objects to be 

 obtained by this operation are two : 1st, to alter the 

 colour of the plant from green to white ; and, 2d, to 

 render it more tender, sweet, and succulent, by 

 shutting out light and heat, and preventing dryness, 

 which give it an acrid taste, and render its fibres 

 tough and hard, and even woody. 



* In planting out celery, as well as cabbages and other plants, 

 we have successfully adopted Cobbett's plan of transplanting in 

 fair warm days, and, if the ground be dry, it is not the worse. 

 The plants are carefully taken up, well grouted, that is, their 

 roots dipped in mud of the consistence of porridge, planted in 

 the after part of the day, and watered at evening. By the grout 

 they become saturated with moisture, and, placed in a warm 

 soil, they in a few hours send forth their radicles, revive and 

 grow. By transplanting in this manner we have seldom found 

 it necessary to water a second time ; and the plants rarely fail 

 to obtain an early and good growth, without ever being covered 

 to protect them from the sun. We prefer transplanting this way 

 in a clear hot day, to doing it in a wet and cool one. J. B. 



