EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 417 



CELERY. 



Celery is seldom grown in the farm garden, as its cultivation is thought 

 too difficult for the amateur. The growing of this excellent vegetable is not 

 so hard as imagined and it should receive more attention than is now given 

 it. The seed should be sown early in the spring. Select a level spot and 

 make it rich with well rotted manure. Thoroughly pulverize the soil and 

 sow the seed in rows about eight inches apart. The seeds are small and an 

 ounce will produce over five thousand plants. When the plants are three 

 or four inches high the tops should be clipped to make the plants stocky. 

 To grow good celery it is quite necessary that the soil be heavily man- 

 ured and one that will not dry out, and, if possible, loose and deep, 

 though good celery may be grown on clayey ground. The rows may be 

 four or five feet apart and the plants six inches distant in the rows. The 

 plants should be set not deeper than they were in the bed and the soil firmly 

 pressed about the roots. When the plants are about ten inches tall 

 the celery wanted for fall use should be banked up to blanch it; this opera- 

 tion should be repeated as the tops grow. The celery intended for winter 

 storing should be earthed sufficiently to induce the stalks to grow upright. 

 Celery will stand several degrees below freezing without serious injury. 

 About the first of November the plants should be placed in trenches or in 

 the cellar to blanch for winter use. If stored outside, trenches should be 

 dug eight or ten inches wide and as deep as the celery is tall. The earth 

 should be loose at the bottom of the trench. The plants, with the roots 

 on, are taken from the rows and packed closely in the trench with the tops 

 even with the surface. As cold weather comes on the tops should be cov- 

 ered gradually, with some loose material, until they are protected from 

 serious freezing. Celery may be placed in the cellar by having boards 

 eight or ten inches apart to prevent packing in a compact mass. Soil 

 should be packed about the roots that they may start to grow, as this 

 growth in the trench or cellar blanches the stalks. Earth is not necessary 

 between the stalks. 



The dwarf varieties seem to give better satisfaction than the larger grow- 

 ing kinds. Oolden Self Blanching and White Plume are good varieties. 

 If a pink sort is desired, Rose will give good satisfaction. 



CUCUMBERS. 



Cucumbers prefer a light sandy loam well enriched. The rows may be 

 five to six feet apart, and the hills three or four feet distant in the rows. 

 In this locality, June 1 to 10 is the time to plant. The striped beetle 

 is very troublesome to the young plants.* A good way to protect the plants 

 is to grow them for a time under a cover of netting or wire screen fastened 

 on a frame. When the plants are well started they will keep ahead of the 

 insects. Seed should be planted every two or three weeks to provide a 

 succession through the season. Plants will continue to produce fruits 

 much longer if no cucumbers are allowed to ripen on the vines. 



One of the best varieties to grow for general use is White Spine. There 

 are several strains of this variety differing somewhat in growth, productive- 

 ness and in time of maturing. Fordhook Improved White Spine, Burpee, 

 is one of the best of its class. The plants were very strong growing and 

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