30 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The celeiy-pit is usually made twenty-four feet or twelve 

 feet wide, two feet deep at the sides, covered with boards 

 supported by posts and purlins, and the boards covered with 

 suflBcient litter to keep out frost. The celery is dug in 

 November, and stowed away, placing a little earth over the 

 roots, and will keep well through the winter, if well aired 

 and cared for, airing it frequently. It needs to be kept dry, 

 to be protected from frost, and kept as cool as may be with- 

 out freezing. 



The spinach house or cellar is similar in appearance to 

 the squash-house ; the shelves, however, are only fourteen 

 inches apart : as we do not need to work between them, it is 

 made partly under ground. As the temperature required 

 for spinach is 30° to 35°, we need no stove, but good venti- 

 lators, and protection from frost by double walls and cover- 

 ing of meadow hay, &c. 



The cellar for storage of roots should be well drained and 

 frost-proof, and provided with windows or doors for free 

 ventilation in suitable weather. Apples and onions keep 

 well in barrels in a cool, dry cellar : the other roots do well 

 in bins piled about four feet deep, with openings in the sides 

 and bottom for slight circulation of air, and a light covering 

 of hay over them to prevent them from wilting. The}' keep 

 fresher if covered with sand, or earth, to prevent evaporation ; 

 but this is not generally practised. Roots intended for win- 

 ter marketing are often washed in the fall, and put in barrels 

 and headed up, and then stored in a cool cellar. They come 

 out fresh and clean at any time in winter when thus stored. 

 The temperature of the cellar should range from 35° to 40°. 

 If much warmer, vegetation and decay will result. The 

 cellar of a house is not well adapted to the purpose, being 

 too warm, especially if provided with a furnace for heating 

 the house, as is often the case. Moreover, the vegetable 

 cellar in spring is inevitably encumbered more or less with 

 decaying vegetables, which are most unwholesome in the air 

 of the dwelling. 



Where many roots are raised for feeding to stock, and 

 where cellar-room is wanting, it will not cost very much to 

 pit them. The pit is usually made four feet wide, by plough- 

 ing the land and shovelling out the loam at each side ; the 

 roots are piled in a ridge about three feet deep, and lightly 



