THE GROWING AND TRANSPLANTING OF FIELD-CROP PLANTS From a cultural standpoint, field, as well as truck crops, may be divided into two groups : (1) those that are propagated from seed planted where the crop is to mature, and (2) those grown from seed planted under special environment for the purpose of producing plants which may be transferred to the field when the soil and temperature conditions have become congenial. The objects sought by the use of specially prepared seed-beds are to lengthen the season for plants requiring a long period for maturing, to bring plants to maturity out of their natural season and to increase the supply of plant ing material from plants requiring special methods of propagation.
Among the crops which are handled extensively in artificially 'prepared seed-beds, are the follow ing : cabbage (page 221), onions, beets, sweet-pota toes (page 613), celery, tobacco (page 639), tomatoes, peppers, and, to a less extent, sugar-cane (page 599) and cassava (page 227), the last two being crops which are grown by transplanting, although no special seed-bed is usually employed for starting the plants. With each of the crops mentioned, the peculiar nature of the plant, the time and method of transplanting it to the open, as well as its resist ance to cold, determine to a large extent the type of seed-bed in which the young plants are grown.
Advice on specific crops.
Cabbage.—Plants for the early crop of cabbage at the South are grown from seeds sown in the open in September, for transplanting to the field in December; while at the North seeds are sown either in coldframes in September, and wintered under cover, to be transplanted to the open early in the spring, or they are sown in the greenhouse or hot bed from January to March and grown in a low temperature with plenty of air in order that the plants may be of suitable size for transplanting to the open in April or May.
Onions.—In the case of onions of the Bermuda type, the common practice in Texas is to sow the seed in September or October in a carefully graded and well-enriched bed, which can be irrigated and the young plants kept growing vigorously up to the time to transplant them to the field in Decem ber. At the North onions are handled in a different way. All the onions which are transplanted for field purposes are grown either in coldframes or hotbeds, the seed being sown early in February or March and the young plants placed in the open after the soil has become thoroughly warm and in a high state of cultivation.
Beets are less extensively transplanted than the two crops just mentioned, but in some localities they are sown in coldframes in the fall to be trans planted to the field early the following February or March.
Celery.—While celery is cultivated very exten sively in certain parts of California, Ohio, Michi gan, New York and Florida, plants are usually started in plant-beds in the open. For some of the extremely early crops at the North, it is necessary to bring the plants on in the greenhouse or hot bed, but for the main crop it is sufficient to sow the seed in the open in specially prepared beds, the seed being scattered in rows or broadcasted, and in some cases transplanted before it is finally set in the field. Ordinarily, however, on an exten sive scale, the plant-bed is simply sheared or gone over with a light mowing machine before trans planting in order to reduce the top surface. Then, with a special digging machine, the plants are lifted. They are usually set in the field by hand.
Commercial production of plants for transplanting purposes.
Beside the methods of producing field-crop plants already suggested, which are usually practiced by the proprietor of the market-garden or truck-farm, there are those who plan to meet the inevitable losses and failures which annually befall a greater or less number of those engaged in the field culture of transplanted plants. Large and distinctive enter prises of this character now exist near both Bal timore, Md., and Charleston, S. C. The managers of these industries maintain extensive seed-beds both in the open and under glass in order that they may be prepared to meet the demand for plants for the garden or truck-farm at all seasons and in any quantity. One firm operating a business of this character annually devotes four to five acres to cabbage plants, four to six acres to celery, and large areas to tomatoes, beets, peppers and aspar agus, beside some two acres under glass devoted to the propagation of ornamental bedding plants. These firms do exclusively wholesale business and, while well known in the trade, are little known to the public outside of truck-farming districts. One of the plant producers located in an especially favored locality on the south Atlantic coast, con ducts a business which enables him to supply cabbage plants in carload lots. This grower six years ago, was able to meet the demand for cab bage plants from sixty pounds of seed sown on two acres. At the prasent time he uses over one ton of seed on about seventy acres of land. Extensive growers are able to produce plants under favorable conditions at very low cost, and in many localities it has come to be the practice of the growers to depend on the "plant men" for their annual supply, often as a question of economy.