upon stupid labor, and were it not for the seemingly imperishable character of some vegetables, the percentage of loss would be much greater. The planting is either too shallow or too deep, and the soil is not uniformly pressed to the roots, which are put into the ground improperly.

In transplanting such plants as the strawberry, the fibrous roots should be spread out as much as possible, while the root of a tap-rooted plant, as the cabbage, beet, etc., should be placed regularly up and down and not bent upon itself. If such a root is bent, the nutritive matter in descending from the leaves will be interrupted at the bend, and new rootlets will be slow to appear beyond it. In transplanting the soil should be uniformly, but not harshly, pressed to the roots their entire length, from the extreme lower point upwards.

With the exception of asparagus, horseradish, onions, and such plants as emit new roots along the lower portion of the stem, as tomatoes, cabbage, etc., it is a safe rule to put down the plant to the depth at which it originally grew.

In sandy soil it occasionally becomes necessary, in a drouth, during an entire transplanting season, to water the plants after they are set out. In this case the watered surface should be covered with dry soil to prevent baking.

In a loose, fine, light soil, free from sticks, shells, pebbles, etc., the hand alone may be used in transplanting on a small scale; but either the planting stick or dibble, or the trowel is preferable. The trowel is the safer implement in the hand of an unskilled workman. In using the dibble, it is thrust into the soil to make a hole to at least the full depth at which the plant is to be inserted, the hole is then widened by a rotary motion of the implement. To insert the plant properly, it is held between the thumb and index finger of the left hand, and thus placed in the hole; the dibble is then plunged

into the ground two or three inches from the plant in a direction with its point toward and a little below the end of the root. The engraving, figure 3, shows the hole made by the dibble with the root of the plant within it. The dibble is thrust into the ground, ready to fix the root in place; by using the point, a, as a fulcrum, and moving the handle of the dibble from b to c, the soil

will be pressed to the root for its entire length, from a to c. If this is done with sufficient force, it will fix a delicate plant so firmly in the soil, that if it be pulled by the top of a leaf, that will give way before the plant can be pulled up. If the dibble is inserted perpendicularly or parallel to the plant, instead of at an angle, or if it be partly withdrawn, before the movement from b to c is completed, the soil will only be pressed to the root at the top, leaving its more important part loosely suspended in an open excavation in the soil, as seen in fig. 4. Planting proceeds most conveniently from left to right. When

the trowel is used, the operation is the same, except that the implement is inserted in front of the plant, instead of at the side.

When plants are taken up so carefully that few of the small roots are ruptured and with the soil adhering, or when they are turned out of flower-pots, they will start

Fig. 4.-IMPROPER USE OF THE DIBBLE.

more readily; but they will not make so luxuriant a growth of leaves, nor will they develope as much fruit, as when a part of the roots has been broken. This is not in consequence of the rupture in itself, but because at and above the points of injury, numerous small fibrous roots are emitted, which are capable of providing the plant with an increased amount of nourishment.

The following table by Werner shows the leaf surface of ruta-baga turnips both of plants grown directly from the seed, and of those subsequently transplanted.

Water is the medium by which the soluble matters of the soil are conveyed, through the roots, into the interior organism of plants. We know that the earth, only apparently dry, cannot support vegetation. The more advanced the state of growth, so long as the foliage remains young and succulent, the more moisture does a plant need. An important fact in the relation of vegetation to moisture is seen in the effect the humidity of the atmosphere has upon its temperature. Without more or less vapor in the atmosphere, radiation would cool the surface of the earth so rapidly as to destroy the life of all tender plants. The hottest rays of the sun pass through the air, even when that is saturated with moisture, without heating it; but the heat radiated from the earth, and every object upon it, is intercepted and absorbed by the humidity in the air; and the atmospheric warmth is therefore in proportion to the heat of the sun's rays and the moisture of the air. Like the covering of a cold frame, the moist air admits the heat by day and

prevents its departure at night. Hence the clearest, driest nights are the coldest. Hence the driest regions, like the desert of Sahara, have the coldest nights, and the cold of high elevations is due to the same cause.

Prof. Tyndall says: "The removal, for a single summer night, of the aqueous vapor from the atmosphere that covers England, would be attended by the destruction of every plant which a freezing temperature would kill." Humidity and temperature are therefore intimately connected.

Although the heat of the sun causes evaporation from plants, its amount is governed by the humidity of the air and the velocity of the wind. If the gardener could regulate the moisture of the atmosphere surrounding his crops, and make it most favorable for keeping up the proper evaporation, by applying water artificially and only in circumscribed limits, to their roots, he could be assured of success. While he may do so in his greenhouse, there are no means of regulating the heat and moisture of the open air. It is therefore that watering out-door crops, in our hot climate, is more often productive of harm than of benefit.

When the earth is naturally moistened by rain, the whole air is saturated with moisture, preventing a too rapid perspiration from the leaves and the evaporation from the soil. If watering is done at all, it should be in cloudy weather; but it is most frequently injudiciously practised in dry, hot weather, and so circumscribed in extent, that it can have little or no effect upon the atmosphere. The roots are temporarily excited, and the dry, hot air robs the plant of the moisture through the leaves as rapidly as it can be pumped up by the roots. As soon as the temporary supply is exhausted, the plant not only returns to its former state of suffering, but is left more susceptible to injury than before. If the watering is repeated, the emission of rootlets near the surface is en