AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 87 



seed-bed, being then, immediately after a final and thorough 

 plowing of the land, transplanted to their appropriate places. 



Transplanting, too, is an essential process in the superior 

 .cultivation of almost every variety of vegetable crop. Check- 

 ing in some measm-e the natm-al tendency to wildness in the 

 growth, it in the same degree tends to secure and hasten the 

 perfecting of the product. A transplanted vegetable, whether 

 plant or tree, other things being equal, will mature sooner than 

 one left standing where the seed was sown. 



It is indeed probable that repeated transplanting, accompa- 

 nied by the stimulus of high nutrition, either experimental or 

 accidental, were the chief processes by which our heading and 

 fleshy-rooting vegetables have been obtained from their wild 

 and worthless originals. 



The reader will infer from what has been said that in all 

 heading vegetables, if he would have superior proilucts, he must 

 cultivate highly, and transplant once or oftener while his plants 

 are in the young growing state. 



PEEPARATOEY STEPS. 



By transplanting we generally, though not always, mean the 

 final setting out of plants where they are intended to mature, 

 and for this process there are preparatory steps of more or less 

 importance according to circumstances. 



1st. Plants, while very small, are often transplanted from 

 the seed-bed, and set from one to three inches apart, or at such 

 distances as will prevent their being " drawn up" and weaken- 

 ed by crowding one another, as well as to afford them room to 

 form good roots. This is technically called " hedding," and, 

 though not essential, will always prove an important aid to the 

 cultivator, affording him strong, well-rooted plants, and ena- 

 bling him to carry a little earth with each root in the final set- 

 ting out of his crop, thus not merely securing the life of all, 

 but, Avhich in late planting is often equally important, their 

 uninterrupted growth. 



2d. This end is still more effectually attained in the case of 

 the egg-plant, tomato, &c., by a second removal, technically term- 

 ed " potfing," in which such a number of plants, usually three. 



