214 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



a small amount. It can be brought along in this way to be readv 

 for market or home use by the Fourth of July or a little later. For 

 the larger amount that comes on later transplant into cold frames 

 by spreading the plants out in rows six inches apart so they will grow 

 stocky and ready for the field a few weeks later. Be sure and never 

 overheat the plants. 



Let us follow this lot of celery through to the market and then 

 come back and speak of the later kinds. The early transplanted 

 plants should be set in the open field as soon as the ground and 

 weather will permit. A little frost wont kill them. I would never 

 attempt to earth up during hot weather on ordinary soils, for it 

 would surely rust. Ten or twelve inch boards are wide enough, and 

 don't put them up until the celery will reach to the top of the boards, 

 or it will be small and spindling. As soon as the boards are in place, 

 then irrigate and push it as fast as possible. Do not crowd along 

 only such an amount as you can dispose of right oflf as soon as fit 

 to use, for during the hot weather it will spoil in many ways if not 

 used. The same boards ought to bleach three lots during the season. 



For private use in warm weather I have found that it pays to 

 leave the root on and put ten cents' worth in a bunch, thus avoiding 

 the usual picking over and rough handling. 



These same early varieties should be sown a few weeks later for 

 our fall crop. Use the boards from the early crop already harvested. 

 I have found it better to use the green-leaved varieties for late use, 

 and this spring sowed the seed about April 15, when a crop of early 

 hotbed radishes had been gathered, transplanting the first time as 

 with the second early lot. I placed them near the water tank, so they 

 could be thoroughly watered often and make a good root growth. 



My field has been thoroughly manured and worked up in best 

 of shape. I always plant on the level surface, using a line, setting 

 the plants first on one side and then on the other, each plant from 

 an inch and a half to two inches from the line thus getting in a 

 plant about every four inches ; whereas the usual rule is once in six 

 inches. I have had good success planting in this way but do not like 

 the double row system for several reasons. Three and a half feet 

 is plenty of width between rows for the real late celery, but four 

 feet ought to be given for celery to be used in the fall. 



Quite often people will board up the green-leaved celery and will 

 wonder why they do not bleach. Always bank up with dirt. A 

 little flax straw placed along the sides of the rows will help to keep 

 it clean and more free from rust — banking over the straw. The 

 keeping qualities of the green-leaved varieties is far superior to that 

 of the self-bleaching, and they are also of better flavor. 



