GROWING EARLY VEGETABLE PLANTS UNDER GLASS Iff 
work. Boys and girls soon learn to drop the plants very 
rapidly, but it is better to have experienced workmen 
set the plants. This operation may be done very rapidly 
with thumbs and fingers or with the index finger of one 
hand and a small dibber in the .other. Many gardeners 
make the hole with a small dibber, drop the plant and 
secure it at once. This is unquestionably the best plan 
when plants are 3 or more inches high, but the board 
method just described is much better for small plants 
when a large force of unskilled laborers is at work ; it 
insures straight rows and a uniform number of plants in 
every flat. 
217. Care after transplanting. — If the soil was made 
sufficiently moist before planting, little or no water is 
needed immediately after. The boxes may be taken to 
the hotbed or the greenhouse or placed in the cold frame, 
as may be required. 
After transplanting, the flats should be looked over 
every day and late in the spring twice a day and watered 
whenever necessary. Until established, ventilation 
should not be too free. Seedlings planted in cold frames 
during the early spring often need no ventilation for a 
week or more. After the plants are well started more air 
should be admitted and the amount of ventilation in- 
creased as the season advances and as the plants become 
larger and stronger. Cold drafts upon small tender 
plants should be avoided as much as possible. This may 
be accomplished by opening the sash on the side of the 
frame opposite the prevailing wind. 
218. The use of mats. — Mats are essential in the frame 
culture of early vegetable plants in the North, although 
double glass sash are used without mats in the milder 
sections. Mats should be placed on the sash about 4 
o'clock in the afternoon in cold weather, and later in the 
day as the spring advances; but they should not be re- 
moved in the morning until the temperature outside is 
