TRANSPLANTING 



The kind and condition of the plants will have 

 much importance in deciding the time at which 

 they may be transferred to the open ground. If 

 cabbage plants have been properly hardened off 

 they may go into the ground much earlier than 

 if very tender. For this reason plants which were 

 started from seed sown in September of the pre- 

 vious year and carried through the winter in cold- 

 frames or those from seed in spring and well hard- 

 ened can go into the ground as early as it can be 

 worked in the spring, but tender plants from hot- 

 beds, started the middle of March or first of April 

 at the North, should not be set out before the first 

 of May, and even then should have been well 

 hardened off by exposure to the weather nights 

 as well as during the day for a week or more. 

 Cabbage plants which show a whitish-green shade 

 are too tender for outdoor life, and it will be better 

 to wait until they show a film of blue over the foli- 

 age. Tender plants, like peppers and egg-plants, 

 should not go into the ground until settled warm 

 weather, which at the North will be any time from 

 the twentieth of May to the first of June. 



Before commencing the transplanting of any 



vegetables the ground should be thoroughly pre- 



[85] 



