he cost of setting greatly increased, but plants
set in such soil can seldom, by any amount of care, be made to do well,
especially if a heavy beating rain or dry windy weather follows
immediately; the condition is less unfavorable if a warm gentle rain or
still moist weather follows. A dry cold wind, even if the day is cloudy
and the soil in good condition, is also unfavorable, particularly if the
roots of the plants are exposed.

Wet soil, cold, dry air and wind are the conditions to be avoided.
Moist, not wet, soil and still, warm air are to be desired; whether the
day is sunny or not is less important. There is a certain definite time,
which does not usually extend beyond a few days, when any lot of plants
is in the best condition for setting in the field. It is hardly possible
to describe this condition more than to say it is when the plants are as
large as they can be without crowding and are in a state where they can
best stand the shock of removal.

It will always be a matter of judgment as to how long it is best to hold
plants, which are in condition for setting, for favorable weather
conditions. They can sometimes be held a few days, by scant watering and
full exposure, or in some cases by taking from the bed and heeling in,
as nurserymen do trees; but it is better to set when the weather is
unfavorable or to run some risk from frost rather than to hold them in
this way too long. The wise selection of time for setting is an
important factor in securing a good and profitable crop.

The South Jersey growers, to whom early ripening fruit is the great
desideratum and who have a very warm soil, and grow plants so they are
quite hardy and can be transplanted with little check, set them in the
field very early, some seasons by the last of April; and if the plants
can be got out so as to have two or three days of favorable weather to
get established before it comes, they seem to be little hurt even by a
quite severe frost. The first essential to successful transplanting is
to have well-grown, healthy, hardy plants; the second is that they be in
good condition for setting, which can be secured by giving them, for a
few days before planting, a scant supply of water and fullest possible
exposure to air and sun, and then a thorough wetting a few hours before
they are to be set.

The South Jersey plan of growing and setting plants gets them into the
field in the best condition of any method I know. Two to five days
bef