."T-. 



How Leaves and Root are 

 Shortened. 



124 The Profitable Culture of Vegetables. 



the stems of the plants with a hoe. Sometimes under such 

 conditions the hole into which the plant is put is filled with 

 water before the soil is pressed up to the root. 



The day before the plants are lifted 

 the bed in which they stand should be 

 soaked with water. The soil should 

 then be loosened with a fork, when the 

 plants will draw easily with the roots 

 unbroken. Whilst the plants are out of 

 the ground they should be kept moist, 

 both roots and tops, and until removed 

 for planting they should be covered 

 with a wet sack. 



If the plants are rather large, and 

 particularly if the weather is dry, it is 

 a good plan to shorten the large leaves 

 to half their length and to cut off the 

 end of the tap-root. In transplanting 

 onions and other similar subjects which 

 have a mass of fine roots, these may with advantage be cut off 

 to within an inch of the base, and the tops shortened by one- 

 third their length ; the advantage of this treatment is that the 

 roots are not so liable to be set turned upwards, the leaves are 

 less likely to wilt or the plant to fall over, and the plants being 

 more convenient to handle the work of setting* them out pro- 

 ceeds quicker. Apart from convenience, practical experience 

 proves that the plants benefit by the operation. When the 

 number of plants to be dealt with is small, and each can be 

 lifted with a ball of soil, this shorten- 

 ing process is unnecessary. 



The best tool for opening the soil 

 is the dibber, of which several of the 

 most useful forms are here depicted. 

 The one on the left is the kind used 

 in the French garden, and is a very 

 handy little tool ; it may be bought 

 in several sizes and has an iron-shod 

 tip. The two others are samples of 

 almost equally useful ones, shaped samples of Dibbers. 



