IV, CULTIVATION IN GENERAL. 



about them. When the plants come up, thin them, keep 

 them clear of weeds, and attend to the directions given 

 under the names of the several plants. 



TRANSPLANTING. 



96. THE weather for transplanting, is the same as that 

 for sowing. If you do this work in wet weather, or when 

 the ground is wet, the work cannot be well done. It is 

 no matter what the plant is, whether it be a cucumber 

 plant, or an oak-tree. It has been observed, as to seeds, 

 that they like the earth to touch them in every part, and 

 to lie close about them. It is the same with roots. One 

 half of the bad growth that we see in orchards, arises 

 from negligence in the planting : from tumbling the earth 

 carelessly in upon the roots. The earth should be as 

 fine as possible j for, if it be not, part of the roots will 

 remain untouched by the earth. If the ground be wet, it 

 cannot be fine. And, if mixed wet, it will remain in a 

 sort of mortar, and will cling and bind together, and will 

 Jeave more or lss of cracks, when it become dry, 



^97. If possible, therefore, transplant when the ground 

 is not wet j but, here again, as in the case of sowing, 

 let it be dug, or deeply moved, and well broken, imme- 

 diately before you transplant into it. There is a fermen- 

 tation that takes place immediately after moving, and a 

 dew arises, which did not arise before. These greatly ex- 

 ceed, in power of causing the plant to strike, any thing to be 

 obtained by rain on the plants at the time of planting 

 5 



