42 THE NEW HORTICULTURE. 



are scarce, provided the plants have the buds nipped out 

 when five or six inches high, which should always be done 

 to make them stocky. Afterwards, as they grow larger, it is 

 well to clip off some of the older leaves, which will give more 

 air and room. After the lines are drawn, set a plant at each 

 intersection, and be sure to have the rows straight and at 

 equal distances apart, so when the plants are nearly ready to 

 go out, a large case or butcher knife can be drawn deeply 

 from one side of the frame to the other each way between the 

 rows. This is to be done a week before planting in the open 

 ground, and a good watering given just after. The effect of 

 this will be to start a multitude of fine, hair roots in the squares 

 whereon stand the plants. In three days run the knife again, 

 and in a few days more the front board of the frame can be 

 taken out and a sharp spade run under the plants about 

 three inches deep, when they will come up with nice, firm 

 balls of earth, and hardly know they were moved. 



In preparing the ground for the crop, it should always be 

 plowed in the fall, if possible, and kept clean through the 

 winter in this warm climate, where the cut-worm moths are 

 often active even then, and are sure to lay their eggs near the 

 young weeds and grass if the ground is foul. Then in Janu- 

 ary scatter about 600 pounds of cotton-seed hull ashes, 30 per 

 cent, potash, and the same quantity of ammoniated super- 

 phosphate, broadcast, per acre. This should be plowed in, 

 throwing the ground up into five-feet beds, with a deep furrow 

 between. Along in the bottoms and on the sides of the fur- 

 rows a second dressing of the phosphate must be scattered, 

 and then the beds plowed back as deeply as possible on these 

 furrows, and a light harrow passed once over each bed to 

 smooth it down. The ground is now ready for the plants, 

 which should be set about the middle of March, three feet 

 apart in the rows and but little deeper than before. Water- 

 ing is not necessary for plants grown as directed, at the time 

 of planting, unless the ground is very dry, which will never 

 be the case if prepared ahead, as advised. But if the weather 

 continues dry, a moderate watering a week after planting, 

 with five pounds nitrate of soda to fifty gallons of water, will 



