Angnst 26, 1869. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



171 



or the garden engine, follow a conple of days afterwards. 

 Mildew will make its appearance in autumn, when there is a 

 moist atmosphere and a rather dry soil, and when the reverse 

 is the case, when there is a moist soil at the roots and a clondy 

 cold air around the tops. The roots dry, with a free evaporation 

 from the foliage, and moisture at the roots with a partial stop- 

 page of perspiration from clondy showery weather, are very 

 likely to produce mildew. 



Celery.— Finished earthing-up to its fall height the dwarf 

 Celery we intend for use early in September. Oar nest bed of 

 the Incomparable White is tolerably strong, bat shorter than 

 nanal. One advantage of this kind is that if you grow it from 

 15 to 18 inches high, you can send it to table 12 or 15 inches 

 in length. We have had iine specimens for the salad-bowl 

 from plants not more than IG inches in height — a matter of 

 importance for the holders of small gardens. We generally 

 grow ours in beds, three or four rows across. Such dwarf kinds, 

 it will be observed, need but little earthing-up, and as we tie 

 every plant with a rlight strand of matting, there is uo diffi- 

 culty whatever in the earthing-up, with or without boards 

 placed across between the rows. The bed referred to, we 

 have had thoroughly cleaned at the bottom, removing all 

 suckers with the point of a knifo, but without injuring the 

 leaves or leafstalks of the main plant. All the dwarf whites 

 we have tried are more apt to stole at the bottom in this way 

 than the taller-growing whites, or even the general run of 

 reds, though all do it at times more or less. These plants 

 being of a good size when planted out, were looked over then, 

 but still a few more suckers will be likely to show themselves, 

 and if left untouched, especially when the planting is rather 

 close, will so far detr-ict from the strength of the main plant 

 or head. Sometimes in early Celery we have left the suckers, 

 and then on taking up for salads the smaller blanched suckers 

 proved useful for soups and stews. We have thus had a 

 good stick for table in the centre, and from four to half a 

 dozen small blanched sticks or shoots round it. In general, 

 however, the best Celery is obtained by nipping out all the 

 suckers that appear, so that the strength of the roots shall be 

 thrown into the one main plant or stem. After planting, it is 

 of little use removing the suckers imtil the plants attain a 

 good size. 



Having thus dressed the bed, we proceeded to tie the plants 

 8 or 10 inches from the ground-level. In tall sorts, as in a 

 red bed, the strands of matting are placed higher according to 

 the height of the plant. This tying encourages the central 

 leaves of the plant to liso, and even causes blanching to com- 

 mence at the centre. There is no nicety required in this 

 tying, except to be careful to tie loosely enough, so as to leave 

 plenty of room for the plant to expand in growth. Even men 

 accustomed to the work are apt to tie the plant too tightly. 

 All that is wanted is to keep it together, tut to give plenty of 

 room for expansion. The object of the tying, besides what is 

 stated above, is to keep the heart free, and secure from earth 

 finding its way there, as it often causes the centre to rot. 

 The diEalvantages of tight-tying are that the band is apt to 

 cut the outside footstalks of leaves, and the heart instead of 

 rising freely is forced to turn back on itself or protrude itself 

 at the side?. 



The removal of the suckers, and tying, involved trampling 

 the surface of the bed ; therefore, when tying was finished, the 

 points of a light fork were used, on the surface ; and as the 

 growth was not too strong, as well as to drive away worms, &c., 

 »_little soot was strewn along the bed, and a good watering was 

 pjven. In a week or so the most careless tyers will see the 

 importance of loose tying, as generally with such encourage- 

 ment the growth is very rapid, after removing the suckers. 

 This bed will be earthed-up at one operation, or at most in two 

 — generally at once— in pieces as we expect it to be wanted, 

 say three weeks beforehand When long tied, less time will 

 do. For instance, in this large bed, most likely eight days 

 or so after giving a good watering, we shall earth-up at once 

 4 or 5 yards of it, following with a piece more every eight 

 or ten days, nntil the bed be finished, and so on with the suc- 

 cession beds. By doing this a bolted or run head of early 

 Celery is with us a rarity. We cannot say what may be the 

 Oase this season, for our young Celery had scarcely justice as 

 respects moisture ; but for a number of years we had a single 

 bolted head of early Celery when we used to have it much 

 earlier than now — that is, fit for use in the beginning of 

 July. Of course when to be used so early it had to receive a 

 considerable amount of artificial heat ; in fact, the trench that 

 ultimately received it was a mild hotbed at bottom. 



We must excuse ourselves for entering into the above details, 

 by stating that numerous subscribers wish to know all about 

 our mode of earthing-up, as so different from that of all other 

 writers, except those who have evidently copied from us, and 

 who uniformly recommend, in earthing-up Celery, to give only 

 a fow inches at a time. Now, as frequently stated, v."e have no 

 objection to this plan late in autumn, when the sun's force 

 is declining; but we have no hesitation in stating that bit-by- 

 bit earthing-up in July and August, and even the first part of 

 a sunny September, is the chief cause why, when early Celery 

 is taken up, there are so many bolted heads, of no use for the 

 salad bowl, or as an acoompanimcnt to cheese. Our practice 

 rests on the simple fact, that the Celery is a ditch-side plant; 

 that to keep it growing freely it must have moisture to meet 

 the free evaporation from its foliage on a sunny day ; that to 

 make it throw up its fiower-stem freely, the best raode to adopt 

 is to keep it dry at the roots, and this is what is constantly 

 done by the bit-by-bit earthing-np system, as, supposing yon 

 give a good watering at first when you add 2 inches of soil, and 

 3 or more inches over it at earthing-up, no rain will reach the 

 roots, and the evaporation from the foliage still goes on ; so 

 that in lifting the Celery it will not be uncommon to find the 

 bulk of the roots surrounded by soil which is dust-dry. Can 

 we wonder that the plants in self-defeneo throw up their flower- 

 stems ? 



Before leaving the subject we would advert to a few correlative 

 matters. Our tying-up acts as slight earthing-up would do, 

 but it leaves the roots open to natural or artificial moisture. 

 Again, we have grown early Celery to an immense size; but 

 except for a particular purpose, we now look on all such huge 

 heads as labour misapplied, or even worse ; first, because from 

 these huge plants, like a man's leg, the head that was obtained 

 for table was not at all proportionate in size to that obtained 

 from our compact moderate-sized plants in a bc-d ; and secondly, 

 because these huge plants, if not protected fiom wet, were a 

 great loss and disappointment, as in rainy weather the wet 

 found its way down to the heart of the plant, and unable to 

 find its way out, it remained there as in a cup, became foul 

 like other stagnant water, and finally scarred or caused the 

 valuable part of the Celery to decay. We have taken up in 

 September the large heads referred to, and fonnd fully one- 

 half only fit for the rubbiah heap. For economy in every way, 

 middle-sized heads are best, and they will be sweetest when 

 the manure used is sweet and well decomposed. In earthing-up 

 Celery for early use, as on our plan it will never stand long 

 nothing is better than the common soil. For late Celery, and 

 that which is to remain through the winter, and especiallyin 

 heavy soils, the Celery will keep batter if surrounded with 

 ashes, sand, moss, or anything that will keep slugs and worms 

 away, and allow superfluous moisture to pass cB. An inch of 

 coal or furnace ashes round the plants will be of great advan- 

 tage in keeping them sound. 



Insects and Popular Prejudice. — We shall refer to previous 

 weeks for other departments, and say a word on the prevalence 

 of insects, and the wonderful quantity this season of the Cocei- 

 nella, called familiarly the lady bird, lady cow, &c., too gene- 

 rally known from its prettily spotted outside covering to need 

 particular desci iption. We lately stated that though free from 

 the infliction in the garden, the neighbouring fields and gardens 

 had Bufiered severely as respects Peas and Beans from different 

 kinds of fly. Some have brought and sent to us lots of the 

 pretty lady bird, which they said quite covered their Beans 

 and were ruining them, and that the more they killed the more 

 numerous they seemed to be. The innocent, pretty, lady bird 

 was blamed for the very evil which it was doing its best to 

 mitigate or remove. Our continental neighbours are more in- 

 telligent, for they encourage these pretty insects to harbour in 

 their gardens. We are not so sure that the lady birds in their 

 perfect state devour in great quantity the different kind of 

 aphides that infest onr vegetables and trees, though when we 

 have shut np such insects along with leaves of Plums and 

 Beans, we found the leaves clean, and the insects with which 

 they were encrusted out of sight, not one remaining. In the 

 larva state, the lady bird devours aphides of all kinds greedily, 

 and the chief work it performs now on all vegetation encrusted 

 with fly, is to deposit eggs where the larva; will be likely to find 

 plenty of food. Never in our experience did we know the lady 

 birds appear so early and so plentifully as this season. On 

 banks and warm pastures, wo saw them plentifully in March 

 and April. Now in garden, field, and pasture, they seem crowd- 

 ing everywhere, and so thickly do they swarm in some places 

 of public resort, that ladies cannot walk, we are told, without 



