CELERY. 



98 



CEIiERY. 



The young plants should be set about 3 

 inches apart in boxes in a cool house, or in 

 beds of rich mould, and when large enough 

 and sufficiently hardened off, the plants 

 should be transferred to an open piece of 

 ground and set about 12 or 15 inches apart. 

 As the leaf-stalks are not blanched, the 

 plant being grown for the root only, there 

 is no occasion to plant it in trenches. The 

 roots may be taken up and stored in an 

 outhouse when ready for use, which will be 

 about the end of October or beginning of 

 November. 



Celery. 



As this most valuable vegetable is usually 

 put on table as an accompaniment to cheese 

 in the winter months, during which it is in 

 season, it has been included among those 

 which are comprised in the " salad " sec- 

 tion. It must be borne in mind, however, 

 that it is equally good and useful when 



stewed and served in white sauce, and that 

 few soups are perfect in which celery or 

 celery seed has not been used as flavouring. 

 Propagation, <5rv. Celery is propagated 

 by seed, which is best obtained from the 

 seedshops. It may be sown in any month 

 from Christmas to April. To get plants 

 for the table in September, seeds should be 

 sown in February in pans, which should be 



placed on a moderate hotbed. In about 

 three weeks they will germinate, and, when 

 about 2 inches high, the plants should be 

 pricked out under glass, either in a frame 

 or in pots, in a compost of loam, and three- 

 parts well-rotted dung. If in pots, shift 

 them in April, and at the end of May plant 

 them in shallow trenches in a warm part of 

 the garden. If the trenches are dug out to 

 the depth of 2 feet, 6 inches of hot dung 

 placed in the bottom to stimulate the plants, 

 the soil replaced, and the plants put in and 

 covered with hand-glasses, an early crop 

 will be the result. A second sowing should 

 be made in March, still on a hotbed or on 

 pans, or protected by sashes and mats until 

 the plants are up ; when fit to handle, they 

 should be pricked out on a slight hotbed, 

 or on a warm border. After a few weaks 

 they should be again transplanted into a 

 similar bed, and placed 4 or 5 inches apart 

 each way. In July the plants will be fit to 

 plant out in trenches for autumn use. A 

 third sowing in April, treated in a similar 

 manner, will be ready for winter use, prick- 

 ing them out in fresh loam and decomposed 

 leaf-mould when large enough to handle. 



Planting out in Trenches. The plants 

 should be placed 8 inches apart in the 

 trenches, and the trenches from 4 to 6 feet 

 apart, according to the size of plants re- 

 quired. The trenches should be about 15 

 inches wide and the plants should be 

 planted in a single row along the middle 

 of each trench. When the plants are about 

 1 8 inches high, blanching commences by 

 throwing the soil round the roots and 

 ridging up, the intermediate ground being 

 planted with coleworts, lettuce, and other 

 light crops likely to be off before the celery 

 requires earthing-up. 



CuthiWs Mode of Trenching. The 

 mode of cultivation recommended by Mr. 

 Cuthill "is to dig out a trench two spades 

 deep and 5 to 6 feet wide, banking up the 

 mould on either side of the bottom of tnc 



