be done unless plants are very scarce, when circumstances, beyond the
growers' control, often make the field give apparent evidence of want
of care, although the real trouble is a want of plants.

"It may be necessary to water the plants once or twice after
transplanting; this in a measure will depend upon the
season."

Tatham in his Essay on the Culture and Commerce of Tobacco, (London
1800,) gives an account of the manner of transplanting in Virginia at
that period. Under the head of

"THE SEASON FOR PLANTING,"

he says:

"The term, 'season for planting,' signifies a shower of
rain, of sufficient quantity to wet the earth to a degree of
moisture which may render it safe to draw the young plants
from the plant bed, and transplant them into the hills which
are prepared for them in the field, as described under the
last head; and these seasons generally commence in April,
and terminate with what is termed the long season in May;
which (to make use of an Irishism), very frequently happens
in June; and is the opportunity which the planter finds
himself necessitated to seize with eagerness for the
pitching of his crop: a term which comprehends the ultimate
opportunity which the spring will afford him, for planting a
quantity equal to the capacity of the collective power of
his laborers when applied in cultivation. By the time which
these seasons approach, nature has so ordered vegetation,
that the weather has generally enabled the plants, (if duly
sheltered from the spring frosts, a circumstance to which a
planter should always be attentive in selecting his plant
patch,) to shoot forward in sufficient strength to bear the
vicissitude of transplantation.

"They are supposed to be equal to meet the imposition of
this task, when the leaves are about the size of a dollar;
but this is more generally the minor magnitude of the
leaves; and some will be of course about three or four times
that medium dimension. Thus, when a good shower or season
happens at this period of the year, and the field and plants
are equally ready for the intended union, the planter
hurries to the plant bed, disregarding the teeming element,
which is doomed to wet his skin, from the view of a
bountiful harvest, and having carefully drawn the largest
sizable plants, he proceeds