190 Gardening 
Fic. 113. A flat filled with dirt bands. A dirt band is very easily made; it 
js merely a strip of cardboard folded to form a square, as shown in this illustra- 
tion. Plants grown in this manner can be transplanted with almost no dis- 
turbance of the roots. 
frame. But seedlings of these grow rapidly and have 
rather coarsely branched roots which make transplanting 
difficult. They may be handled successfully by growing 
a few seedlings each in wooden berry boxes, pots, or any 
containers of small size. 
When grown in flats, the plants may be arranged in 
groups of from three to five and the roots of each group 
kept separate by bands of cardboard, in what is called the 
“ dirt-band ” method. In transplanting to the garden, 
the mass of soil with the enclosed roots is not allowed to 
break up. Tomatoes and cabbages can thus be grown 
with a single plant in each “ dirt band ” (see Figure 113). 
Hardening plants. Plants should never be trans- 
planted to the garden without hardening. The sudden 
