TRANSPLANTING 



delayed until the late afternoon of the following 

 day. Planting large numbers of plants in this way 

 may be done in several days. Great care should 

 be exercised in lifting the plants from the beds; 

 they should not be grasped by the handful in the 

 hand and pulled up like so many weeds a process 

 which leaves most of the roots in the ground but 

 should have the trowel passed well down below their 

 roots and a section lifted carefully out, the plants 

 being separated as they are set. The advantage of 

 this method will be apparent if one will compare 

 the roots of the carefully lifted plants with those 

 pulled up in the usual haphazard way. The latter 

 will have one long root, with a few fragments of 

 side root adhering, while the carefully lifted and 

 separated plant will show a fine mass of fibrous 

 roots, which will at once take hold upon the soil 

 in the new position and begin to feed the plant 

 and produce growth, while the badly lifted plant 

 must first replace the roots of which it was so 

 ruthlessly bereft before it can give any nourish- 

 ment or assistance to the top. 



Only as many plants should be lifted at once as 

 may be gotten into the ground before they wilt. 



Keeping the plants in good condition until they 



[87] 



