RAISING CELERY. 



553 



REMARKS ON RAISING CELERY. 



BY R. L., LONG-ISLAND. 



The raising of celery is a subject that may- 

 appear to your readers to need very few 

 directions, as it is so generally understood 

 in our gardens. But having been more 

 than usually successful in growing this fine 

 vegetable on a large scale, perhaps a few 

 remarks, giving the detail of my mode, may 

 not be unacceptable to your readers. 



I raise my crop of celery mostly for the 

 winter's supply ; and, to simplify the mat- 

 ter, I shall only speak here of the main 

 crop. Those of your readers who wish to 

 have it earlier, may easily do so by starting 

 the plants in a hot-bed about the middle of 

 March. 



xne best time for the sowing for the 

 main winter's crop is about the 1st of April. 

 Although I have succeeded perfectly well 

 by sowing on a rich warm border, yet to 

 insure against the accidents of a cold and 

 untoward season, I usually sow in a slight 

 hot-bed, and cover, as usual, with glass. 



About the middle of May I choose a bit of 

 ground in the warmest and richest part of 

 the garden for the " stock bed." This, I 

 prepare by digging it thoroughly, and mix- 

 ing with the uppermost six inches of the 

 soil as rich a coat of old manure as I can 

 well incorporate with it. In this plat, or 

 bed, thus well prepared, I prick out the 

 plants from the hot-bed three inches apart 

 everyway, — watering them thoroughly eve- 

 ry day when the weather is not damp or 

 rainy. 



Here they grow until about the 10th or 

 15th of June — the season for the final plant- 

 ing out. Having fixed up the ground for 

 my celery patch, I have it well trenched | 

 two feet deep with a spade, if it has not | 

 VOL. 11- 70 



been trenched previously. In the trench- 

 ing, I bury all the best top soil in the bot- 

 tom of the lower spit, and throw the clayey 

 or gravelly subsoil on the top. The reason 

 for this procedure is obvious. You always 

 set celery plants in a trench. If you take 

 off half the top soil to make this trench, it 

 is evident that you have but a very poor 

 bottom left on which to grow celery. On 

 the other hand, if you make the soil of 

 double the usual depth, and put the best 

 soil at the bottom of the two feet, it is 

 placed exactly where it is of most benefit 

 to the roots of the plants; while the poorer 

 subsoil, being on the top, answers equally 

 well to raise about the stalks, in order to 

 blanch them. 



Very well; at the 10th of June, then, I 

 mark out my plat of trenched ground into 

 trenches three feet from each other. The 

 trenches themselves should be dug a foot 

 wide and eight inches deep. You can 

 scarcely make the soil in them too rich ; 

 and I have ascertained by experiment that 

 the celery plant not only likes common sta- 

 ble manure, but is also very fond of bone 

 dust, or horn shavings. I therefore, in pre- 

 paring the trench, put half a peck of either 

 of these substances to the soil of every fifty 

 feet of trench, and a quart of fine packing 

 salt. Then the whole manure, bone dust, 

 etc, is well incorporated in the soil of the 

 trench to the depth of six or eight inch- 

 es, and you are ready for the transplant- 

 ing. 



It is best to do this in a dull or cloudy 

 day. But if it is properly done, i. e., with 

 halls of earth to each plant, one day will 

 answer nearly as well as another. In order 



