THE farmer’s manual. 
59 
“ The phnls will succeed best when set in fresh 
earth, or earth recently moved by the plough. 
“ When we have our plants, and hands all ready, 
the i.'! ■I’ghman Ijcgins, and turns in the ridges, (which 
have on prepared as before staled ;) that is, he 
turns th' grouml back again, so that the top of the 
ne t, plinn hf>() ridge, stands over the place where the 
dev!:.' !(i' l•(r\v was bcfore he began. As soon as he 
has, fiiiisiict' the first ridge, the planters begin to set, 
wiiiie he is ploughing the 2d, and so on through the 
fie!'' .This process is not very tedious, for in 
1 had fifty-two acres of Ruta Baga planted 
1 . 'ids way, and a crop of more than fifty thousand 
bi'.shels. A smart lad will set half an acre per day, 
with a girl, or boy, to drop the plants, and I had a 
man, who would set, often, an acre a day. 
*• Observe well what has been said about fresh earth, 
and never forgetting this, let us talk about the art of 
planting. We have a setting stick, which should be 
the top of a spade-handle, cut ofl’ about 10 inches be- 
low the eye, and pointed smoothly : the planting is then 
done in the manner of setting cabbages. Choose a 
dry time for your transplanting, and for this reason ; 
if your plants are put into wet ground, the setting- 
stick squeezes the earth up against the p]|iot in « mor- 
tar like .‘>tate ; the sun comes and bake's this mortar 
into a hard glazed clod ; the hole also, made with the 
stick, is smooth upon its sides, and presents an im- 
penetrable substance totheroot.s and fibres of the plant, 
and thus the vegetation is greatly checked ; but when 
plants are set in dry earth, the reverse of all this is 
true, and the fresh earth will supply proper moisture 
under any degree of drought. The hole thus being 
made in dry weather, set your plant without bending 
the point; support it with one hand, firm in the hole, 
and with the other hand, apply the setting-stick to 
the earth on one side of the hole, so as to form a sharp 
triangle with the plant, then thrust the stick down a 
little below the bottom or point, of the plant, and with 
