The Bulletin. 17 



hand for copious watering. The greater part of the celery grown 

 commercially is produced on low peaty soils. It is usually planted on 

 lowlands, for there the land is richer and the supply of moisture more 

 constant. With proper attention to thorough preparation and fertiliza- 

 tion, enough celery for home use can be grown in almost any garden. 



Too much stress cannot be put upon the importance of thorough 

 preparation of land for celery. The land should be plowed 8 or 10 

 inches deep and harrowed thoroughly immediately afterwards. If this 

 is done just before planting, care should be taken that the subsoil is 

 not turned on top. It often materially helps the pulverizing process 

 if the land is harrowed before plowing. In no case should clods be 

 left in the soil. Beginning immediately after transplanting to the field 

 or garden, cultivation should be frequent and shallow to keep out weeds 

 and maintain a dust mulch to prevent the escape of moisture by evap- 

 oration. 



Celery is a gross feeder. Even land that is considered rich will 

 usually show good results from an ample supply of stable manure 

 thoroughly incorporated with the soil. If green stable manure is used 

 it will be better to apply it to a preceding crop. Well-rotted stable 

 manure may be applied with impunity at the time of preparing the 

 land for the celery. Even when a heavy supply of manure has been 

 given, it will be found advantageous to use 1,000 to 2,000 pounds of 

 commercial fertilizer analyzing something like 



Phosphoric Acid 7 per cent 



ISTitrogen 5 per cent 



Potash 8 per cent 



One-half or two-thirds of this may be applied at the time of prepar- 

 ing the land and the remainder applied in the rows. One hundred and 

 fifty to 200 pounds of nitrate of soda is often applied alongside the 

 rows two or three weeks before blanching, or the same amount may be 

 applied in several light applications from the time the plants are well 

 established to blanching time. 



In the middle South celery is grown as a fall crop, hence the trans- 

 planting to the field or garden is done during the earlier half of August. 

 The plants may be procured from northern growers or grown at home. 

 In the latter case, some time during the last half of May the seed 

 are sown about a dozen per inch in rows 6 inches apart in a rich, moist, 

 well-prepared seed-bed. The bed is kept moist — not wet— and shaded 

 till the plants are well up, when the shading is gradually discontinued. 

 When the plants have four or five leaves they are thinned to 1 or l^A 

 inches apart in the rows. Those taken out may be transplanted to 

 another bed, as they usually make better plants than those left in the 

 original bed. For transplanting to the field or garden, use only good 

 stocky plants. The tips of the roots are usually cut back and the tops 



