52 MARKET GARDEK1KG. 



determine whether a crop be secured or not, but to grade 

 the productiveness and time of maturity. Beets, car- 

 rots, parsnips, radish, turnip and all other fleshy tap- 

 rooted plants are best grown on permanent positions, 

 as they do not transplant well, but many fibrous-rooted 

 plants, as cabbage, tomato, egg plant, pepper, lettuce, 

 are most safely started in beds, and really do best after 

 transplanting, as they then are afterward more deeply set 

 in the soil and start off upon fresh tilled land as well as 

 while growing in the bed, giving the gardener ample 

 time to make all desirable arrangements for transplant- 

 ing, while, on the other hand, if he sowed the seed in 

 permanent position at the same early date he might fail 

 to secure good plants. 



The process of transplantation should be performed 

 on soils properly tilled ; that is, thoroughly plowed or 

 dug, harrowed or raked, and marked off in rows at 

 proper intervals for hand hoeing, or wider for horse cul- 

 tivation. While transplantation by thoroughly experi- 

 enced persons can sometimes be done under unfavorable 

 conditions of soil, it is, as a rule, only safely undertaken 

 when the soil is damp or wet, when the rain is falling, 

 or the air charged with moisture, otherwise the plants 

 may succumb under hot sun or drying winds. 



In setting the plants in the row, space should always 

 be allowed between them greater than the extreme diam- 

 eter of the fully developed plant. For instance, if a 

 certain variety of cabbage will produce a head and out- 

 side leaves of a space of fifteen inches, then that variety 

 of plant should be set at eighteen inches ; or if one vari- 

 ety of lettuce plant grows twelve inches in diameter and 

 another variety only five inches, they should be set 

 accordingly. 



In taking plants from seed beds they should not be 

 pulled up, to the destruction of the rootlets, but lifted 

 with a trowel or similar tool, and when out of the ground 



