WINTER MEETING. 241 



streams of pure water. The multiplied thousands of barrels of water held back 

 would lessen our floods and modify our drouths, at least on the lands that held the 

 reserve. 



I will give a few items, not directly connected with the above, that may be of 

 interest to some. Those wishing to raise nut-bearing trees may succeed by secur- 

 ing this year's seed as soon as they come into our markets and packing in wet sand 

 till spring. Then plant where they are to grow. Ked Cedar seed should be gath- 

 ered before the 15th of January and placed in an open box, or something suitable 

 to hold them, covered under ground 15 months ; or, in other words, planted now, 

 they will lay in the ground this winter, next summer and next winter, and will 

 grow early the second spring. I have made two successful plantings after keeping 

 the seed boxed under ground 16 months. If the weather is warm, Pine will grow 

 immediately after planting. All veariing trees do better with partial shade the 

 first season. My cedars of last spring's planting are now eight inches high. Some 

 2-year-olds are two feet high. It is difficult to get a good growth from the ever- 

 green seedling from the northern forests. It is my desire that all may succeed ia 

 raising nice groves, wind-breaks, etc., and the foregoing remarks are for the bene- 

 fit of those who want information, as I did a few years ago. 



Isaac M.. Neff. 



SUCCESSFUL CELERY CULTURE. 



BY JACOB STOCKE, ST. LOUIS. 



To make a success in growing celery, two, three or four points must be care- 

 fully observed. The first point is in obtaining good seed of the varieties you wish 

 to plant, and I will give you the names of three varieties as I value them : 



Ist, the White Plume; 2d, the Golden Self-blanching; 3d, the Golden Heart. 

 The latter named being more hardy, should be planted, grown and cared for as a 

 late variety for winter use. About the last of April or the first of May plant the 

 seed in a well-prepared seed-bed, made rich and fertile with decayed or well-com- 

 posted manure. After seed is sown in seed-bed, ground should be mulched with 

 waste hops from the brewery, or very finely pulverized horse-manure. While the 

 plants are growing in the seed-bed, your ground where you intend growing them 

 should be thoroughly prepared, and if taken in hand the year before, so much the 

 better. The ground should be very rich, either as new bottom-land worked deep 

 and mellow, or else it should be good garden ground, highly fertilized and deeply 

 worked. 



Fertilizers should be thoroughly incorporated into the soil to a depth of from 

 12 to 15 inches. Thoroughly decayed barn-yard manure, or a compost made with 

 the same, is the best fertilizer to be used in the successful growth of celery. I 

 want to be understood, that as celery is so largely composed of water, it requires 

 much moisture in the soil, naturally or artificially supplied, to make a successful 

 growth ; and unless extra care is taken in preparing a deep seed-bed, your celery 

 growing will be as near a failure as possible. But to proceed with the planting. 

 In the latter part of June or the early part of July, plant your celery in trenches 

 four, five or six inches deep, according to how well you have worked your ground. 

 In transplanting to the trenches, the roots should be kept moiet, artitioially, if 

 necessary, and' after your plants are well started in the trenches, if the season 

 should prove dry, you must keep up a regular system of watering plants in the 

 trenches, lor in this one point your success or failure lies. 



H— 16 



