io6 



Success with Small Fruits. 



illustrated in Figure d. They hastily scoop out a shallow hole, in which 

 the roots, which should be down in the cool depths of the soil, curve 

 like a half-circle toward or to the very surface. 



In the most favorable weather of early spring, a plant is almost certain 

 to grow, no matter how greatly abused, but even then it does far better if 



b ft if 



Wrong Methods of Planting. 



treated properly, while at other seasons nature cannot be stupidly ignored. 

 It is almost as easy to set out a plant correctly as otherwise. Let the 

 excavation be made deep enough to put the roots, spread out like a fan, 

 down their whole length into the soil. Hold the plant with the left hand, 

 as in Figure e. First, half fill the hole with fine rich earth with the right 

 hand, and press it firmly against the roots ; next, fill it evenly, and then, 

 with the thumb and finger of both hands, put your whole weight on the 

 soil on each side of the plant as close to it as possible and press until 

 the crown or point from which the leaves start is just even with the 

 surface. If you can pull the plant up again by its leaves, it is not firm 

 enough in the ground. If a man uses brain and eye, he can learn to 



work very rapidly. By one dexterous movement, 

 he scoops the excavation with a trowel. By a 

 second movement, he makes the earth firm 

 against the lower half of the roots. By a third 

 movement, he fills the excavation and settles the 

 plant into its final position. One workman will 

 often plant twice as many as another, and not 

 work any harder. Negro women at Norfolk, 

 Virginia, paid at fifty cents per day, will often 

 set two or three thousand. Many northern 

 laborers, who ask more than twice that sum, will not set half as many 

 plants. I have been told of one man, however, who could set 1,000 per 

 hour. I should examine his work carefully, however, in the fear that it 

 was not well done. 



The Proper Method. 



