d drill, and is especially useful in getting leaves from the paths
and borders; but it should be used with a light hand, and care taken not
to scratch the ground into holes with it, as many young gardeners do.

HOEING.

The hoe is of very great use, both to hoe up weeds and to form drills.
We have spoken about its former use, and shall now say a word or two
about the latter. In forming a drill for peas, beans, or other seed, one
thing is above all things requisite, namely, that it should be
_straight_. A drill resembling a dog's hinder leg, never looks well in a
garden, and therefore the little gardener must have recourse to his
_line_. This ought to be long enough to stretch quite across his ground,
and when he wants to strike a drill, he should stretch it across from
path to path, and, taking his hoe in his hand, cut or scrape a little
furrow, about three or four inches deep, by the side of his line. In
sowing peas and beans, the drills are generally a yard apart, and
between them other crops are sometimes sown. Very often a crop of
spring-spinach or of radishes is sown between lines of peas, and so on
of other intermediate crops.

[Illustration]

The line is very useful in all kinds of planting. In planting
broad-beans, they are put into the ground by a _dibber_, which is a
piece of wood with a pointed end and a handle. The holes are to be
dibbed along the side of the line. The same tool is used in a similar
way in planting potatoes, strawberries, cabbage-plants, and a variety of
other roots, which require to be planted in straight and equidistant
lines.

TRANSPLANTING.

There are a great many vegetables which require to be
transplanted,--some from the hot-bed, and some from the open ground,
where they have sprung from seeds, to their destination in the garden.
All transplanting should be done with care. Some plants, such as cabbage
plants, do not require so much care as others, but every plant to do
well should be well planted. Young gardeners are liable to many mistakes
in transplanting; one is, that they often put the root of the plant into
the ground bundled together; another is, that they make the hole too
large with the dibber, and are not careful in pressing the mould to the
root at the bottom of the hole, so that the root of the plant has
nothing to feed upon. All this the thoughtful little gardener will
avoid; and when he puts a plant into the ground, he will reflect that if
it be not well _plant