TREATMENT OF SEEDLINGS. 2$ 



and roots. The removal of weeds is the only attention 

 necessary during the growing season, and this, owing to 

 the presence of the leaf mulch, which will prevent weed 

 growth to a large extent, will be only slight labor. 

 When the plants have died down in the autumn, give a 

 dressing of well-rotted horse manure and replace the 

 brush covering. In the second season give the bed the 

 same treatment as during the first, namely, remove the 

 brush in the spring and the weeds during the summer. 



In the second autumn transplant the young plants 

 to the permanent beds, after the digging of the roots 

 has been completed in October. Trimming should be 

 done only when the roots are much injured in the dig- 

 ging and seem unlikely to recover. After replanting, 

 they must be covered with muck or leaf mold in the 

 same manner as they were the previous seasons in the 

 nursery beds. 



The advantages of setting the plants in the autumn 

 are that they have already prepared for winter, and what 

 little injury they may suffer in the digging and trans- 

 planting will be callused over long before spring opens. 

 Moreover, the work may be done at any leisure time the 

 grower may have between- the dying down of the tops 

 and the advent of frost. If left until the spring, how- 

 ever, the rush of other work may prevent the transplant- 

 ing until the plants have srown so much that injury 

 may result. But there is no' other objection to set- 

 ting in the spring if this be preferred, and the grower 

 need not wait until the plants have appeared above 

 ground, because if the bed has been properly laid out he 

 can lay his hand upon them at any time, and may set 

 them as early as the ground will permit, the earlier 

 the better. 



It is generally only a matter of convenience, when 

 the cultivated beds are employed, whether the planting 

 be done in the spring or in the fall. And this is a dis- 



