THE FARMERS' VEGETABLE GARDEN. 147 



four inches each way, putting eighty plants into a bed that is 

 3x5 feet. When the plants showed sprouts around the base I 

 took them away and used them for celery soup, and when the 

 plants were six inches high I held the tops together with one 

 hand and with the other I worked the soil in carefully around 

 the plants to a depth of about three inches. When they got 

 to be about eight or ten inches high, I packed in the soil and let 

 the celery remain there until we got frosty weather. When we 

 got frosty nights, I put the hotbed sash on the top, and as the 

 weather grew colder I put on a shelter. On the 13th of 

 November, I took it out of the bed and packed it in boxes and 

 put it into my storage room, not having a cellar. That is the 

 method in which I grew celery. No farmer has any need of 

 doing without celery if he wants to grow it, 



Mr. Bush : What kind do you use ? 



Mr. Elliot : I had the self-bleaching. 



Mr. Beardsley : The great thing is to quit cutting asparagus 

 in time, then manure it well, and you can cut it the next year as 

 long as you want to. 



Mr. Reeves (Iowa): I find there is no necessity for stopping 

 the cutting of asparagus until you want to stop using it. We 

 have an asparagus bed thirty years old, three rows fifteen rods 

 long, the product of which supplies the family and brings an 

 income of 830 to $40 a year. 



In regard to celery, I found one year I had about one thousand 

 plants that were not grown large enough for use and not large 

 enough to bleach, so I put it in the cellar. I dug up roots and 

 all and put a layer of good rich earth on the cellar floor, and 

 then I put in a layer of plants with a little earth between each 

 plant, then another layer of earth and plants ; then I put a 

 board up close to it to hold it, and I poured water on the floor 

 of the cellar to keep it moist ; it would not do to pour it on top 

 as that would cause it to rust. I grew that celery to a good 

 height, and I found no trouble, like the reporter with his 

 squashes, in giving it all away. 



Mr. Harris: My experience with asparagus differs somewhat 

 from that of Mr. Reeves. I do not think I can cut mine as 

 long as he does his. I find if I cut a bed pretty severely and 

 then not cut it the next year, the following year I get an 

 immense crop of large asparagus. 



