60 TRANSPLANTING 



4. Describe some method of transplanting you have seen. 



5. What precautions should be observed in transplanting ? 



PRACTICAL EXERCISES 



1. In a small box of earth, plant tomato seeds, and keep it in a 

 warm room. At the same time make a number of small paper 

 boxes, fill them with soil, and plant two or three tomato seeds 

 in each. After the plants come up in the paper boxes, remove 

 all but one from each box. At the proper time, plant the paper 

 boxes in the ground without disturbing the tomato plant in 

 each. Lift from the wooden box an equal number of tomato 

 plants and transplant them in the usual way. Watch the 

 results of each method of planting. 



2. A simple hotbed is easily constructed by digging a hole in 

 the ground two feet deep and fitting a frame of boards around it 

 that will support a window sash. Fresh manure from grain-fed 

 horses should be placed in a pile and water sprinkled over it 

 until it is sufficiently moist. Then it should be forked over 

 once or twice each day for a week or ten days to keep the manure 

 from burning, and to set up active fermentation. Place this 

 in the bed, pounding it down tight to a depth of twelve or 

 fifteen inches. Cover with the sash and leave two or three 

 days, testing the temperature with a thermometer, when the 

 heat has gone down to 100 degrees, cover with four to six inches 

 of good soil. In a day or two the heat will be reduced to 70 de- 

 grees or 80 degrees, and then the seeds may be planted. Venti- 

 late carefully by opening the sash during the warm part of the 

 day, and water to keep the soil moist. The sash should slope to 

 the south ; and if the sun is too bright, it may be shaded with 

 a cloth or by whitewashing the glass. 



