THE EARTH'S BOUNTY 



the time of transplanting, it is better not to 

 water for forty-six hours, by which time the 

 soil will have settled sufficiently to prevent the 

 roots being disturbed; but, of course, condi- 

 tions must control, as they invariably do, all 

 such matters. 



My dear " gardener man " has a compre- 

 hensive sympathy with plants that guides him 

 to apparently daring risks sometimes. An 

 expert violet grower was in the house one day 

 and remarked, in an insinuating way, that the 

 beds looked dry; to be told by the man of in- 

 stinct that the earth would have to wait for a 

 drink until the plants said they were thirsty 

 which, I have no doubt, sounded like tomfool 

 idiosyncrasy to the old grower; but really it 

 was unconscious perspicacity, for there are 

 times when even moisture-loving plants like 

 violets derive benefit from an abstinence, 

 which at other times would cause them to 

 droop and die. It is the gift to discern just 

 such uncertainties of appetite in animal and 

 plant life that makes the really successful 



35 



