TEANSPLANTING 63 



spade is large enough for the majority of men, and a 

 5-inch or 6-inch spit enough soil to take at once. 



The soil should be thrown well up on to the edge of 

 the dug ground, and all clods broken by a smack with 

 the back of the spade. 



If they are too stiff to break easily, the soil is not fit 

 for transplanting. Where the soil is naturally stiff, a 

 good plan is to loosen it up behind the diggers by inserting 

 a fork or spade, the former being better, levering up the 

 soil, and allowing it to fall back into place. The men 

 while digging tread on this loosened soil, which action 

 helps greatly to pulverize it and make it suitable for the 

 insertion of young plants. 



The tools used in transplanting are spade, fork, rake, 

 garden line, foot-rule or measuring sticks, barrow or skeps 

 (rough baskets) for carrying weeds or stones off the beds ? 

 and two sets of seedling prickers. 



The measuring sticks may be 8 or 9 feet long, marked 

 to the width of the lines, and laid down along the edges 

 of the bed. 



Keeping the Plants Clean. 



Such weeds as couch-grass and convolvulus can only 

 be dealt with effectively when the nursery ground is bare, 

 but annual weeds can be kept under by means of hoeing 

 and hand- weeding. 



The latter is the only way to get rid of weeds on beds 

 where the seedlings have been pricked out 3 inches by 

 3 inches or so. Where they have got a very strong hold 

 on the ground, as they will do during a spell of wet but 



