CELERY. 53 



HOEING. 



By the usual practice a crop of celery 

 is hoed early in the morning without 

 regard to the state of the soil as regards 

 moisture, and with no reference to the 

 direction of the wind at the time. But 

 what is the penalty of such practice ? That 

 which I suffered was the loss of thousands 

 of heads of celery ; and such doubtless is 

 the experience of others. Not suspecting 

 the real cause of my failures I tried at 

 great cost every experiment which I could 

 devise, and at last was rewarded by dis- 

 covering how to ensure a healthy crop. 

 Now I never hoe my celery when either 

 the leaves are wet or the soil is damp, 



