PROPAGATION AND CHAP. 



or by planting in wet earth. Cabbages and Ruta Baga 

 (or Swedish Turnip) I have proved, in innumerable in- 

 stances, will, if planted in freshly-moved earth, under a 

 burning sun, be a great deal finer than those planted in 

 wet ground, or during rain. The causes are explained 

 in the foregoing paragraph ; and there never was a 

 greater, though a most popular error, than that of waiting 

 for a shower, in order to set about the work of transplant- 

 ing. In all the books that I. have read, without a single 

 exception : in the English Gardening books ; in the 

 English Farmer's Dictionary, and many other works on 

 English husbandry ; in the Encyclopaedia j in short, in 

 all the books on husbandry and on gardening that I have 

 ever read, English or French, this transplanting in 

 showery weather is recommended. 



98. If you transplant in hot weather, the leaves of the 

 plants will be scorched , but the hearts will live ; and 

 the heat, assisting the fermentation, will produce new 

 roots in twenty-four hours, and new leaves in a few days. 

 Then it is that you see fine vegetation come on. If you 

 plant in wet, that wet must be followed by dry ; the 

 earth, from being moved in wet, contracts the mortary 

 nature j hardens first, and then cracks ; and the plants 

 will stand in a stunted state, till the ground be moved 

 about them in dry weather. If I could have my wish in 

 the planting of a piece of cabbages, ruta baga, lettuces, 

 or almost any thing, I would find the ground perfectly 

 dry at top j I would have it dug deeply -, plant imme- 

 diately; and have no rain for three or four days. I 

 would prefer no rain for a month, to rain at the time of 

 planting. 



