82 THE FLOKAL WORLD AInD GAEDEW GUIDE. 



carried out in the open air, consequently the in-door preparation of 

 the plant must be timed so that it will be ready for planting when 

 the season is suitable to its growth. In gardens where vegetable 

 culture is carried to great perfection, peculiar plans are adopted for 

 producing celery fit for table at an earlier period than ordinary, and 

 plants from sowings made at the beginning of Pebruary are got out 

 while the weather is still too cold for it, and to make amends, the 

 beds are formed over fermenting material, and protection is given 

 above by means of glass frames and matting. What I intend to 

 deal with now is the cultivation of celery with no such peculiar aids ; 

 and the system of early sowing must be condemned for this reason, 

 that the plants are advanced to a size fit for planting out before the 

 season is sufficiently advanced to be favourable to growth, the conse- 

 quence is a check. Now, a check is as injurious to celery as to 

 balsams, asters, and many other plants, which, it is known, never 

 recover from it. Plants kept a long time starving in seed-boxes are 

 so weak when planted out, that for several weeks afterwards they 

 actually grow smaller instead of larger, as many readers of this will 

 remember to have been the case with their own crops. When at 

 last these ill-used plants recover, they grow in a miserable manner, 

 the stems are stringy and hollow, many of them run to bloom, and 

 are quite worthless ; and as for stout, succulent, handsome heads, 

 they can only result from good cultivation. 



For all general purposes, where there is no intention to snatch 

 an early supply by a half- forcing process, the middle of March is soon 

 enough to sow the seed. It should be sown in pans or boxes, in 

 light rich earth, the seed to be scattered thinly on the surface, and 

 be very lightly covered with very fine soil. If the soil is of a proper 

 degree of moisture in the first instance, no water will be needed till 

 the plants are up ; the retention of moisture and the germination of 

 the seed may be promoted by laying a sheet of paper over the seed- 

 pan, or a board or tile may be laid on it, care being taken to remove 

 it the instant the seed begins to sprout. A gentle heat is needful to 

 bring up the plants nicely ; but a strong heat is not i*equired, and, 

 in fact, is injurious. But if there are no means of starting it with 

 heat, it will come on very well kept in a frame or greenhouse, in the 

 full svm, but screened to prevent evaporation. It is one of the 

 advantages of sowing the seed later than is generally done, that 

 there is less need of artificial heat to start it into growth. 



When the plants have two rough leaves each, it is advisable to 

 draw out a few with the aid of a bit of stick, and pot them singly in 

 thumb-pots, in a mixture of equal parts friable loam, dung rotted to 

 powder, and with an addition of sharp sand. These may be placed 

 in a frame, and must, of course, be shaded, and rather tenderly cared 

 for during the first few weeks. A hundred or more plants may be 

 potted in an hour, and, if carefully treated, these will give an early 

 supply of fine heads. The object of the cultivator should be, by 

 good cultivation, to make these selected plants overtake other 

 people's that were sown early in order to be kept starving in the 

 seed-pans. 



The remainder must be pricked out as soon as they are as large in 



