originally grew, pressing the earth a little about the roots.

If it is necessary to do the transplanting in a dry spell, as usually
happens, select the latter part of the afternoon, if practicable, and,
making holes with a dibble, or any pointed stick an inch and a half in
diameter, fill these holes, a score or more at a time, with water; and
as soon as the water is about soaked away, beginning with the hole first
filled, set out your plants. The evaporation of the moisture below the
roots will keep them moist until they get a hold. Cabbage plants have
great tenacity of life, and will rally and grow when they appear to be
dead; the leaves may all die, and dry up like hay, but if the stump
stands erect and the unfolded leaf at the top of the stump is alive, the
plant will usually survive. When the plants are quite large, they may be
used successfully by cutting or breaking off the larger leaves. Some
advocate wilting the plants before transplanting, piling them in the
cellar a few days before setting them out, to toughen them and get a new
setting of fine roots; others challenge their vigor by making it a rule
to do all transplanting under the heat of mid-day. I think there is not
much of reason in this latter course. The young plants can be set out
almost as fast as a man can walk, by holding the roots close to one side
of the hole made by the dibble, and at the same moment pressing earth
against them with the other hand.

PROTECTING THE PLANTS FROM THEIR ENEMIES.

As soon as they have broken through the soil, an enemy awaits them in
the small black insect commonly known as the cabbage or turnip fly,
beetle, or flea. This insect, though so small as to appear to the eye as
a black dot, is very voracious and surprisingly active. He apparently
feeds on the juice of the young plant, perforating it with small holes
the size of a pin point. He is so active when disturbed that his
motions cannot be followed by the eye, and his sense of danger is so
keen that only by cautiously approaching the plant can he be seen at
all. The delay of a single day in protecting the young plants from his
ravages will sometimes be the destruction of nearly the entire piece.
Wood ashes and air-slaked lime, sprinkled upon the plants while the
leaves are moist from either rain or dew, afford almost complete
protection. The lime or ashes should be applied as soon as the plant can
be seen, for then, when they are in their tenderest conditio