June, 1917 
WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
147 
Set Plants Right. 
The most important factor in 
setting plants is to get the soil in 
contact with the roots of the 
| plant. Very often the plant 
| when set with a trowel is 
! “choked,” that is, the soil is 
pressed around the collar of the 
plant while the roots are sus- 
pended in the hole. It is impos- 
i sible for the roots to come in con- 
tact with the soil when in this po- 
sition, and the plant withers and 
dies. 
Cucumbers, melons, and squash, 
which are to be transplanted, 
j should be grown in paper pots or 
J flower pots so that the ball of 
I earth around the roots is not dis- 
i turbed in transplanting. Plants 
I are ordinarily set a little deeper 
than they were in the seed bed. 
Overgrown or spindly tomato 
plants may be set in a slanting 
position in a trench three or four 
inches deep. A plant set in this 
, way will form roots along the 
buried stem. 
Uses for the Garden Rake. 
With a good soil and proper 
hoeing, the rake may be dispensed 
with except in the preparation 
1 tillage. Most people use the rake 
to level improperly hoed soil. In 
■ maintenance tillage, the chief 
I! value of the rake lies in its use 
j| as a substitute for the hoe when 
the rows are far enough apart to 
permit of its use. It is used with 
! a slight chopping motion and 
saves time when comparatively 
large areas are to be tilled. Our 
choice is the old-stylecl straight 
rake with straight teeth. 
Tools for Tillage. 
The hoe and rake are the chief 
tillage implements in the average 
city garden. In fact, no other 
tools are necessary for mainte- 
nance tillage if these two are of 
the proper kind and properly 
used. 
More than half the garden hoe- 
ing is less than half done. This 
is because most amateur garden- 
ers do not know how to use a hoe 
as a tillage implement. The aim 
in hoeing should be to leave the 
entire surface tine, loose, and lev- 
el. Hoeing usually falls shortof 
this aim for one or more of the 
following reasons. 
don’t “cut and cover.” 
First we notice in faulty hoe- 
ing the cut and cover method. 
This consists in inserting the hoe 
into the soil and pulling a quan- 
tity of soil on top of an unhoed 
area. The operation is repeated 
leaving a series of hills and hob- 
lows with only approximately 
one-half of the original surface 
soil stirred. This must be fol- 
lowed by raking and even then is 
far from efficient. The only thing 
in its favor is that it is a rapid 
method, but we should have 
higher ideals than mere rapidity 
in our garden work, if we are to 
insure the best harvest. 
The second reason why we fail 
to secure best results is because 
we leave the row strip too wide, 
thus permitting the loss of a large 
amount of moisture and leaving 
an opportunity for weeds to de- 
velop in direct competition with 
the vegetables. This failure is 
usually due to unsuitable hoes. 
Most hoes are too large and are 
so constructed as to make work 
betAveen plants, set at small dis- 
tances, almost impossible. The 
long-handled, three-cornered hoe 
frequently called the onion hoe,” 
will largely eliminate this diffi- 
culty. 
Loosen the Surface Soil. 
We hoe to preserve a layer of 
loose soil on the surface, yet in 
looking at many recently hoed 
gardens, you would never mis- 
trust that this Avas the chief ob- 
ject. The gardener, due to faulty 
methods, has succeeded in largely 
repacking the soil by tramping 
over the area he lias just hoed, 
and not infrequently, his labor is 
worse than wasted as he has less 
favorable conditions when he has 
finished than before lie began. A 
good mark at which to aim in 
this regard is to have no foot- 
prints visible when the hoeing is 
finished. If you set out Avith this 
in mind, you will quickly devise 
ways of accomplishing your pur- 
pose, and that Avithout loss of 
time or efficiency. Of course, 
this mark cannot be reached 
where the wheel hoe or horse cul- 
tivator is used. 
Hoeing properly done, then : 
(1) stirs all the soil possible; (2) 
leaves the soil fine and level; (3) 
aA’oids repacking the soil by 
tramping. 
The small hoe is preferable to 
the large hoe in a number of 
ways. Some of the reasons are 
that it is easier to operate ; can 
be used closer to plants; if soil is 
somewhat compact, a much better 
job can be done, and at less ex- 
penditure of energy. Nine-tenths 
of the hoeing in the city garden 
can be done efficiently with the 
long-handled, three-cornered hoe 
previously mentioned. Avoid 
round-backed and very large- 
bladed hoes. 
Do not prune spring-floAvering 
shrubs until after they floAver. 
Those that floAver in autumn may 
be pruned iioav. 
