31 



for the table from September 10 on, and will keep as well as any vari- 

 ety. It must be bleached with soil or grown in the pit, to be of good 

 quality. 



Methods of growing the Plants. 



Plants may be started in flats in the house, or under glass in a hot- 

 bed or greenhouse. Prepare a fiat thus : Take a box not over 2 inches 

 deep, and with other dimensions of any convenient size, sift in 1 inch 

 of sharp sand or coal ashes, and then fill in the box level full with 

 good sifted garden soil. Press the whole down and level the surface. 

 Sow the seed broadcast and sift on a little more loam, covering the 

 seed a little less than ^ inch. Keep moist and warm until the plants 

 appear, which should be in from one to three weeks, according to 

 temperature and age of seed, but chiefly temperature. Keep the 

 plants growing, and prick out in a hotbed or cold frame, setting about 

 300 plants to the sash. The plants should be kept under glass, and 

 made to grow by proper care in watering, ventilating and keeping 

 warm at night, using mats on the glass for that purpose. Seed sown 

 in flats or under glass March 1 should give plants large enough to prick 

 out April 10. These plants, if carefully grown, should be ready to go 

 into the field by May 10. 



Another way to get good plants is to sow in rows 6 inches apart in 

 a hotbed or cold frame from March 1 to March 15. The ground should 

 be kept moist and warm until the plants appear, and should then be 

 stirred between the rows, and the plants ventilated and cared for the 

 same as when started in flats. 



Good plants for the main crop can be grown by sowing the seed 

 broadcast or in rows in the open field as early in the month of March 

 as you can sow peas. Cover the seed not more than ^ inch. These 

 plants should appear in about three or four weeks ; less attention than 

 is required in the methods previously mentioned will give plants of 

 good size to set after early crops of lettuce, beets or beans. Celery seed 

 may be sown up to May 1 with good prospect of getting plants large 

 enough to set in July and August. 



Market gardeners raise many plants in greenhouses and hotbeds to 

 set on low land for celery to market in July and August. The plants 

 for all celery marketed later than that come from seed sown with a 

 machine in the field, in rows 8 to 12 inches apart. 



If your plants are not growing as rapidly as you wish, give a little 

 nitrate of soda and plenty of water. You must be careful, or the plants 

 will suffer from too much nitrate of soda. If the plants are getting 

 too large, cut back the tops and loosen the roots, to check their growth 

 and start new roots and tops. The effect produced by loosening the 

 roots with a fork is very much the same as that of transplanting, and 

 far more economical. Plants should not be thicker than four or five 

 to the inch in the row, and must be thinned if they stand thicker than 

 this. If sown too thick broadcast, it will be best to transplant all 



