226 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
December, 1909 
Transplanting Seedlings 
'T'HE soil into which seed- 
lings are to be moved 
from their seed bed should be 
in about the same condition, 
as regards moisture, as the 
soil in which seeds are sowed 
—that is, as moist as a pre¬ 
vious day’s watering will make 
it. And the soil from which 
they are taken will, of course, 
be about the same, and will 
yield their roots readily, 
without tearing. 
At this stage of the opera¬ 
tions comes in the dibble —a 
very important affair which, 
thrust an inch or so into 
the earth half an inch from 
the seedling, is twisted and 
worked and tilted this way 
and that gently until the soil 
is loosened enough to let the 
little plant be picked lightly 
from it. For very tiny plantlets a 
toothpick makes as good a dibble as 
may be had, but there are occasions 
when a section of broom handle, sharp¬ 
ened like a long pointed pencil, is not 
a bit too big. A little practice with 
the tool will quickly teach you the 
size appropriate for any particular 
plant. 
Lift the seedling by taking one of its 
leaves carefully between the soft ball 
of the thumb and index finger —you will 
be surprised at the ease with which you 
will handle mere atoms of plants this 
way—not touching the body of the 
plant at all, nor allowing its roots to 
come in contact with anything. 
Thrust the dibble into the earth at 
the spot the plant is to occupy, making 
a hole as deep or a little deeper than 
its longest root; lower the seedling into 
this hole until it is as deep as it originally 
grew, then thrust the dibble down once 
more, half an inch from it this time, 
and by tilting the handle over towards 
it, gently press the earth against and 
around its roots. If the hole seems 
insufficiently filled after this, leaving 
the plant unsteady and loosely set, 
thrust the dibble down at another spot 
or lay its point flat onto the soil, along¬ 
side the plant’s stem and press down 
until the earth falls into place, filling 
the hole completely. Do not pack the 
dirt, but make it Ann. 
Water moderately after the work 
is finished, unless the sun shines on the 
plants; this will help to carry the earth 
close around the roots, settling it and 
pressing out the air pockets. 
Mature and Maturing Plants 
Read the directions — but watch the 
plants. Volumes of literature cannot 
teach all their little queernesses, and 
each gardener must learn by his own 
experience how to meet the particular 
emergencies arising from the combina¬ 
tion of soil, weather and plant with 
which he has to deal. 
Maturing plants differ in their re¬ 
quirements greatly and each must be 
studied by itself; but there is one thing 
that is appreciated by all alike, and that 
is tillage. The man with the hoe, and 
the rake, and the cultivator, is the 
being they hail as friend, be sure of that. 
Indeed this stirring of the soil is so 
great a benefit that one of the most 
ancient garden maxims says “tillage 
is manure.” 
But it’s not to keep the weeds down 
that this constant scratching of the 
surface must be kept up, surprising as it 
may seem and contrary to popular 
notions. Incidentally it does prevent 
them from gaining a foothold of course, 
but its great merit lies in its action on 
the soil itself. 
Moisture is carried through soil by 
capillary attraction. When rain or 
dew falls on the ground it penetrates to 
plant roots by means of this action, 
going down and down until it is equal¬ 
ized in the soil or finds a way through 
into still deeper fissures and drains out 
into rivers or springs. 
With the coming of fair weather 
after a rain, however, this downward 
action is immediately reversed on the 
surface, where the water particles first 
yield themselves to the air and heat of 
the sun and pass from the ground com¬ 
pletely. Gradually the pull upward of 
this same capillary force draws the fluid 
from deeper down until all that the 
thirsty earth has absorbed is relentlessly 
taken from it and scattered in the air 
again as vaoor. 
But tillage is the interrupter of this 
robbery by the sun. It interposes a 
little, thin blanket of soil particles which 
are too widely separated from each 
other for capillary pull to be efficacious, 
and the soil beneath it is thus enabled 
to retain the precious drops for a much 
longer period, even in decided drought. 
Then, too, this finely pulver¬ 
ized, blanketing soil absorbs 
moisture more readily than a 
hard-baked, unstirred surface, 
and even the light precipita¬ 
tion of dew, night after night, 
is greedily drunk by it. 
So the importance o f 
tilling rests not in its meri ’ 
as a weed eradicator, yot 
see. But happily it does 
eradicate them thoroughly — 
for weeds are gluttons and 
by virtue of this spirit in 
them are able to take the 
best of everything from a 
piece of ground, starving out 
its rightful tenants. 
Go over a garden — or a 
bed, or whatever you are 
tending — at least twice a 
week with this gentle surface 
“scratching.” That is all 
that it need amount to, 
really; the stirring need not 
be deep — an inch of loose soil is enough 
—but it must be frequent, and only 
heavy rain should be allowed to 
interfere with the semi-weekly repetition 
of it. 
For small surfaces one of the small 
hand weeders is excellent. For larger 
spaces a hand cultivator, made pur¬ 
posely for tilling and used like a hoe, 
is better. Some recommend a wheel 
hoe, but this, though good in garden rows, 
is not adapted to every sort of location 
as the hand cultivator is. 
Deeper stirring of the ground has 
more marked physical effects on the 
soil, hastening chemical activities and 
making the stores of plant food available, 
Very often soil contains all the elements 
necessary to support plant life richly, 
but not in such form that the plants can 
consume them. Therefore they go hun¬ 
gry in the midst of plenty, even as a man 
might in the midst of quantities of those 
elements which science has found out 
compose man—if they were not present 
in forms available to his teeth, appetite 
and digestive apparatus. 
Remember always, however, that 
deep tillage is not a conserver of mois¬ 
ture. On the contrary it lightens stiff 
and heavy soils by draining them. 
Thus they become “deeper,” warmer, 
finer and consequently more easily 
penetrated by the tiny hairlike root¬ 
lets that are the actual feeders. 
Plants growing as specimens—that 
is shrubs or flowers set by themselves 
and not in a bed or border—need this 
same treatment and respond to it with 
gratitude almost as marked as the 
humbler garden stuff shows. Even 
trees appreciate the loosening of the 
earth around their trunks. Indoor pot 
plants, too, should be included. In 
fact one should cultivate the habit of 
disturbing the surface soil around prac¬ 
tically everything that grows, for tillage 
is a requisite first, last and all the time, 
to which everything else is secondary. 
