Some Minor Farm Crops. 85 



appreciable quantity of second quality celery is grown on 

 peat soil pure and simple. Celery is an expensive crop to 

 grow, and therefore needs not a little capital and very con- 

 siderable experience. The method described in detail here is 

 the one usually followed, though it is not adopted by all 

 celerj" growers, many having their individual ways of 

 cultivation. 



Celery seed is not drilled in the trenches, as in the case of 

 roots, but is sown under glass, and the small plants are pricked 

 out. Some farmers grow their own plants, but many buy 

 them. This raising of young celery plants has become quite 

 an industry, notably in the village of Haxey, and seeing that 

 each acre of celery grown requires 20,000 young plants, it will 

 readily be understood that it offers considerable scope to some 

 of the smaller occupiers. 



Two varieties of celery are grown in this district, the 

 " pink " celery on the best or warp land, and the " white " on 

 the peat. Early in February the frames or " lights " are pre- 

 pared ; they usually measure 4 ft. by 3 ft. About February 10, 

 ^ oz. of seed, costing about 8.s. per lb. is sown in each of the 

 lights. This | oz. of seed should produce 10,000 plants. 

 At about the middle of April the small plants are pricked out 

 into beds. The garden where the beds are to be should have 

 been carefully dug over and well manured, and should have a 

 very fine tilth. The beds should be in strips 6 ft. wide, with 

 a narrow path between each. This pricking out, which is most 

 delicate work, is usually done by women, it being " let " to 

 them at 6r/. per 1.000 plants. The plants are pricked out at a 

 distance of 1^ in. apart, so that one square yard will contain 

 600. The seedlings remain in these beds until the middle of 

 June, when they are ready for the trenches. Their value will 

 now be from 2s. Gd. to 3s. per 1,000. 



Celery usually follows wheat in the rotation, and early in 

 the autumn the stubble is ploughed with a special digging- 

 plough into small lands 5 ft. in width, the open furrows 

 being finished as deep as possible to form the trenches for the 

 plants. This first ploughing will require four hoi'ses. The 

 land is left in this condition through the winter for the 

 ameliorating influence of the frosts. Early in the spring, in 

 February if possible, fork manure is placed in the trenches, 

 30 tons to the acre being generally applied. This will be seen 

 to be a very heavy dressing, as the celery trenches are twice the 

 distance apart that potatoes are grown at. Celery growers 

 prefer town manure, when good, to that made in their own 

 yards, the reason being that it consists of stable manure and 

 butchers' refuse, &c., which is regarded as very favourable to 

 growth. 



