TRANSPLANTING OF ROOT AND FORAGE CROPS. 343 



other things, two ways of doing it, the right and the wrong 

 way. The wrong way is that which is too often done, and 

 consists in dibbling the hole and inserting the plant, and 

 thereafter giving the soil at or near the plant a slight 

 pressure, leaving the plant loose. Now the great point to 

 be attended to, is that the soil shall be in close contact 

 with the plant, and this can only be done by a certain 

 mode of operation, which may be classed amongst those 

 more easily done than described. The dibble hole is first 

 made, the plant inserted, and the dibble again inserted in 

 the soil about an inch or so from the plant ; the dibble, still 

 remaining in the soil, is then pressed inwards towards the 

 plant, which brings the soil in close contact with the root, 

 so close that the plant will resist a considerable pull in 

 endeavouring to extract it from its hole; if it resists this 

 the operation of transplanting may be considered well done. 

 We may say that, so far as our own experience goes, it 

 takes as litjje time to transplant properly as improperly. 

 It may be said, certainly, that this transplanting is not by 

 any means adapted for farming on the large scale ; true, it 

 may be, and perhaps is not, but that transplanting to fill 

 up occasional vacancies is worth the labour involved, we 

 have no hesitation in declaring to be true; it is not a 

 question of a reduced crop, but it is a question of crop or 

 no crop on those places where the original seed has failed. 

 And we certainly know that very little time indeed is taken 

 up in transplanting plants, the value of which time is far, 

 very far, below that of the crop resulting from the labour 

 of so transplanting. But we may go further and say that 

 transplanting for some crops gives better results than where 

 the seed is originally sown, and the plants thinned out on 

 the ground. Kohl rabi, in our experience, invariably 

 yielded the largest crop when the plants were transplanted 

 from a seed-bed; and the poorest were those which were 

 grown upon the drill, sown turnip fashion, and then thinned 

 out. And every gardener knows the advantage of "prick- 

 ing out " of cabbage plants from the seed-bed before putting 

 them into the final place for growth. 



