CELERY 215 



shipment, and^ as a rule, it is safer for the Florida grower to buy his plants 

 than to attempt to grow them in hot weather. The Northern plan, as de- 

 tailed by Mr. Henderson, is to set the plants on land that has been heavily 

 manured for some early crop, as a fresh addition of manure to the celery may 

 do more harm than good. The plants are set on well prepared land in rows 

 three feet apart and six inches apart in the rows, and the roots well firmed 

 in planting, by tramping on each side of the row after setting. As the celery 

 starts to grow the cultivator is run between the rows, and by the middle of 

 August the plants are drawn close by hand and a little earth packed to them 

 to keep them upright. Later on the earth is plowed to the rows, and the 

 banking then completed with the spade for the celery that is to be used in the 

 fall ; very little banking being done to that for the winter, which is taken up 

 and stored in trenches as deep as the celery is tall, and is gradually covered 

 with hay or straw as the weather gets colder, so as to keep out the frost. 



From Baltimore southward a different plan is used by gardeners. I 

 once asked Mr. Henderson why he did not try our plan. He replied that he 

 wished he could, but that their winters were entirely too cold to make it a 

 success. The method is as follows. Selecting land, as in the North, that has 

 been heavily manured for an early crop, we add some commercial fertilizer 

 rich in potash, which the stable manure, which may have been used in the 

 spring, lacked. The land is, of course, prepared, as well as possible. A line 

 is tightly stretched along one side of the bed to be planted. A board is pre- 

 pared one foot wide by six feet long, and the ends accurately squared. On 

 each side of the board notches are cut six inches apart, beginning six inches 

 from each end. The planter sets the end of the board square or perpendic- 

 ular to the stretched line, and sets a plant at each notch on each side. The 

 board is then moved another space and another row set, and this process is 

 continued to the end of the bed. We then have a bed with rows crosswise 

 a foot apart, and eleven plants in each row six inches apart. A space of eight 

 feet is then left for earthing and another bed set in the same way, till the land 

 is planted. Sometimes, when the beds are situated so that they can be irri- 

 gated, a rim of earth is raised around the edge of the beds so that the water 

 can flow all over and be retained on the bed only. The setting is done early 

 in September, and a month later the plants will have begun to spread their 

 leaves. They must then be "handled." For this purpose we use two pieces 

 of twine with sharpened pegs tied to the ends. A peg is stuck at the end 

 of a row, a turn is made around each plant in the row, and finally the peg 

 in the other end of the string is stuck at the other end of the row. A second 

 row is then treated in the same way, and earth is shoveled in between them. 

 The whole bed is gone over in the same manner and then the earth is packed 



