IRRIGATION OF THE GARDEN. 179 



Celery. The writer never had knowledge of a gar- 

 den crop that needs more water than does celery. It does 

 best in a soil that is naturally moist and is supplied with 

 ;m nbundance of vegetable matter. The market gardener 

 generally raises two crops of celery early and late. The 

 early crop is usually disposed of during the late sum- 

 mer and fall months, while the late crop is stored for 

 winter and spring use. For an early crop the seed is 

 sown about the first of March in a moderate hotbed, in 

 drills two inches apart. The soil should be made very 

 rich and the bed well watered, to give the plants a good 

 start. 



When the plants have grown to a fair size, they are 

 usually transplanted into a cold frame. However, this 

 practice of transplanting celery is rapidly disappearing. 

 Experience has proven beyond a doubt that celery so 

 treated will produce a larger pe'r cent of plants that go 

 to seed, and therefore become worthless. The plants, 

 while in the seedbed, should be shorn off at least twice, 

 in order to make them stocky and form a quantity of 

 fibrous roots. When the plants have attained the proper 

 size that is, from three to four inches they should be 

 transplanted into their permanent bed, which must be 

 well fertilized with short and well-rotted manure, in 

 rows five feet apart, and the plants set eight inches apart 

 in the row. After transplanting the plants they should 

 be given a good soaking by running the water down the 

 rows, and if the weather is dry they must be irrigated at 

 least once every week or ten days and cultivated after 

 each irrigation. Some growers are more extravagant 

 than this and irrigate as frequently as three times a 

 week. In six weeks from setting, the plants will be 

 large enough to be handled or banked. This is best 

 done by throwing up a furrow on each side of the row, 

 and pulling the earth close to the plants with a hoe. 

 Then commence at one end of the row and gather up all 



