GROWING EARLY VEGETABLE PLANTS UNDER GLASS 157 



work. Boys and girls soon learn to drop the plants very 

 rapidly, but it is better to have experienced workmen 

 set the plants. This operation may be done very rapidly 

 with thumbs and fingers or with the index finger of one 

 hand and a small dibber in the other. Many gardeners 

 make the hole with a small dibber, drop the plant and 

 secure it at once. This is unquestionably the best plan 

 when plants are 3 or more inches high, but the board 

 method just described is much better for small plants 

 when a large force of unskilled laborers is at work ; it 

 insures straight rows and a uniform number of plants in 

 every flat. 



217. Care after transplanting. If the soil was made 

 sufficiently moist before planting, little or no water is 

 needed immediately after. The boxes may be taken to 

 the hotbed or the greenhouse or placed in the cold frame, 

 as may be required. 



After transplanting, the flats should be looked over 

 every day and late in the spring twice a day and watered 

 whenever necessary. Until established, ventilation 

 should not be too free. Seedlings planted in cold frames 

 during the early spring often need no ventilation for* a 

 week or more. After the plants are wey started more air 

 should be admitted and the amount of ventilation in- 

 c.^eased as the season advances and as the plants become 

 larger and stronger. Cold drafts upon small tender 

 plants should be avoided as much as possible. This may 

 be accomplished by opening the sash on the side of the 

 frame opposite the prevailing wind. 



218. The use of mats. Mats are essential in the frame 

 culture of early vegetable plants in the North, although 

 double glass sash are used without mats in the milder 

 sections. Mats should be placed on the sash about 4 

 o'clock in the afternoon in cold weather, and later in the 

 day as the spring advances ; but they should not be re- 

 moved in the morning until the temperature outside is 



