88 



THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. 



broken, immediately before you transplant into it 

 There is a fermentation that takes place immedi- 

 ately after moving, and a dew arises, which did not 

 arise before. These greatly exceed, in power of 

 causing the plant to strike^ any thing to be obtained 

 by rain on the plants at the time of planting, or by 

 planting in wet earth. Cabbages and Ruta Baga 

 (or Swedish Turnip) I have proved, in innumerable 

 instances, will, if planted ia 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 most popular error, 

 than that of waiting for a shower in order to set 

 about the work of transplanting. 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 hus- 

 bandry ; in the Encyclopedia ; 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. 



171. 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 ; hard- 

 ens 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 ; I would have it 



