THE GROWING AND TRANSPLANTING OP FIELD-CROP PLANTS 



147 



THE GROWING AND TRANSPLANTING OF 

 FIELD-CROP PLANTS 



By L. a Corhett 



From a cultural standpoint, field, as well as truck 

 crops, may be divided into two groups : (1) those 

 that are propagated from seed planted where the 

 crop is to mature, and (2) those grown from seed 

 planted under special environment for the purpose 

 of producing plants which may be transferred to 

 the field when the soil and temperature conditions 

 have become congenial. The objects sought by the 

 use of specially prepared seed-beds are to lengthen 

 the season for plants requiring a long period for 

 maturing, to bring plants to maturity out of their 

 natural season and to increase the supply of plant- 

 ing material from plants requiring special methods 

 of propagation. 



Among the crops which are handled extensively 

 in artificially prepared seed-beds, are the follow- 

 ing : cabbage ^age 221), onions, beets, sweet-pota- 

 toes (page 613), celery, tobacco (page 639), tomatoes, 

 peppers, and, to a less extent, sugar-cane (page 599) 

 and cassava (page 227), the last two being crops 

 which are grown by transplanting, although no 

 special seed-bed is usually employed for starting 

 the plants. With each of the crops mentioned, the 

 peculiar nature of the plant, the time and method of 

 transplanting it to the open, as well as its resist- 

 ance to cold, determine to a large extent the type 

 of seed-bed in which the young plants are grown. 



Advice on specific crops. 



Cabbage. — Plants for the early crop of cabbage 

 at the South are grown from seeds sown in the 

 open in September, for transplanting to the field in 

 December; while at the North seeds are sown either 

 in coldframes in September, and wintered under 

 cover, to be transplanted to the open early in the 

 spring, or they are sown in the greenhouse or hot- 

 bed from January to March and grown in a low 

 temperature with plenty of air in order that the 

 plants may be of suitable size for transplanting to 

 the open in April or May. 



Onions. — In the case of onions of the Bermuda 

 type, the common practice in Texas is to sow the 

 seed in September or October in a carefully graded 

 and well-enriched bed, which can be irrigated and 

 the young plants kept growing vigorously up to 

 the time to transplant them to the field in Decem- 

 ber. At the North onions are handled in a different 

 way. All the onions which are transplanted for 

 field purposes are grown either in coldframes or 

 hotbeds, the seed being sown early in February or 

 March and the young plants placed in the open 

 after the soil has become thoroughly warm and in 

 a high state of cultivation. 



Beets are less extensively transplanted than the 

 two crops just mentioned, but in some localities 

 they are sown in coldframes in the fall to be trans- 

 planted to the field early the following February or 

 March. 



Celery. — While celery is cultivated very exten- 

 sively in certain parts of California, Ohio, Michi- 

 gan, New York and Florida, plants are usually 



started in plant-beds in the open. For some of the 

 extremely early crops at the North, it is necessary 

 to bring the plants on in the greenhouse or hot- 

 bed, but for the main crop it is sufficient to sow 

 the seed in the open in specially prepared beds, 

 the seed being scattered in rows or broadcasted, 

 and in some cases transplanted before it is finally 

 set in the field. Ordinarily, however, on an exten- 

 sive scale, the plant-bed is simply sheared or gone 

 over with a light mowing machine before trans- 

 planting in order to reduce the top surface. Then, 

 with a special digging machine, the plants are 

 lifted. They are usually set in the field by hand. 



Commercial production of plants for transplanting 

 purposes. 



Beside the methods of producing field-crop plants 

 already suggested, which are usually practiced by 

 the proprietor* of the market-garden or truck-farm, 

 there are those who plan to meet the inevitable 

 losses and failures which annually befall a greater 

 or less number of those engaged in the field culture 

 of transplanted plants. Large and distinctive enter- 

 prises of this character now exist near bpth Bal- 

 timore, Md., and Charleston, S. C. The managers 

 of these industries maintain extensive seed-beds 



Fig. 230. A transplanting machine. The two men who handle 



the plants sit hehind. 



both in the open and under glass in order that they 

 may be prepared to meet the demand for plants for 

 the garden or truck-farm at all seasons and in any 

 quantity. One firm operating a business of this 

 character annually devotes four to five acres to 

 cabbage plants, four to six acres to celery, and 

 large areas to tomatoes, beets, peppers and aspar- 

 agus, beside some two acres under glass devoted 

 to the propagation of ornamental bedding plants. 

 These firms do exclusively wholesale business and, 

 while well known in the trade, are little known to 

 the public outside of truck-farming districts. One 

 of the plant producers located in an especially 

 favored locality on the south Atlantic coast, con- 

 ducts a business which enables him to supply 

 cabbage plants in carload lots. This grower six 

 years ago, was able to meet the demand for cab- 

 bage plants from sixty pounds of seed sown on two 

 acres. At the present time he uses over one ton of 

 seed on about seventy acres of land. Extensive 

 growers are able to produce plants under favorable 

 conditions at very low cost, and in many localities 

 it has come to be the practice of the growers to 

 depend on the "plant men" for their annual supply, 

 often as a question of economy. 



