TRANSPLANTING. 53 



should be protected from sun or air, as either influence 

 will dry up those tender fibers upon which depend its 

 earlier or later connection with the soil. The coarse 

 roots may be looked upon as so many anchors ; they 

 do not sustain the life of the plant. The plants dug 

 from the seed beds and properly protected, the next 

 operation is to set them, which may be done with a 

 dibble or trowel. The dibble is a long, pointed, cone- 

 shaped tool, which, from its form and rotary motion 

 when used, generally smooths the sides of the hole, both 

 bad features, while a trowel is a digging implement, 

 leaving the soil mellow. 



The plants should be set deeper than they origin- 

 ally stood, but as a rule, not deeper than the points of 

 attachment of the lower leaves. None of the root fibers 

 should point upward, be all turned downward, and the 

 more widely spread the better. The soil should be 

 pressed down with the hand or foot after the plant is 

 set, that the earth and rootlets may be brought into 

 intimate contact, otherwise the time required to bring- 

 about this contact is so much lost time. It is a good 

 practice to hoe a transplanted crop just as soon as the 

 plants recover from the setting, as hoeing mellows the 

 soil and has a vitalizing effect. 



Mulching. In small gardens the practice of mulch- 

 ing after transplanting is often pursued with marked 

 advantage. This operation is the covering of the soil 

 around freshly set plants, vines, shrubs and trees, with 

 three to four inches in depth of litter of any kind, long 

 manure, dry hay, dried leaves, green grass from the 

 lawn, green weeds from the field or garden, any of them 

 preventing, during dry weather, excessive evaporation 

 from the soil. 



Crops well mulched are comparatively free from 

 weeds, and such as do push themselves through it can 

 easily be pulled up, while the moist, mellow condition 



