CHAPTER XIV. 



SETTING OUT PLANTS. 



TT 7E may secure good plants of the best varieties, but if we do not set 

 V V them out properly, the chances are against our success, unless the 

 weather is very favorable. So much depends on a right start in life, 

 even in a strawberry bed. There are no abstruse difficulties in properly 

 imbedding a plant. One would think that, if a workman gave five 

 minutes' thought and observation to the subject, he would know exactly 

 how to do it. If one used his head as well as his hands, it would be 

 perfectly obvious that a plant held (as in Figure e) with its roots spread 

 out so that the fresh, moist earth could come in contact with each fiber, 

 would stand a far better chance than one set out by any of the other 

 methods illustrated. And yet, in spite of all I can do or say, I have never 

 been able to prevent very many of my plants from being set (as in 

 Figure a) too deeply, so that the crown and tender leaves were covered 

 and smothered with earth; or (as in Figure b) not deeply enough, thus 

 leaving the roots exposed. Many others bury the roots in a long, tangled 

 bunch, as in Figure c. If one would observe how a plant starts on its 

 new career, he would see that the roots we put in the ground are little 

 more than a base of operations. All along their length, and at their 

 ends, little white rootlets start, if the conditions are favorable, almost 

 immediately. If the roots are huddled together, so that only a few 

 outside ones are in contact with the life-giving soil, the conditions are, 

 of course, most unfavorable. Again, many planters are guilty of the folly 



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