136 AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



it is the best. The term solid as applied to celery refers to 

 the leaf-stem or eatable part, which, in inferior varieties, is 

 more or less hollow, or " piped." Celery should be sown upon 

 the surface of fine, light soil. The seed, being raked in very 

 lightly, should be shaded for a few days, and watered moder- 

 ately each evening until it comes up, if the weather be dry. 

 When about two inches high, the plants should be transplanted 

 into a second bed at one or two inches apart. In May and 

 later, prepare for their final planting by digging trenches about 

 a foot wide and ten or twelve inches deep at a distance of three 

 or four feet apart. Strew along the bottom a thick layer of 

 thoroughly rotted manure, and dig it in, mixing it well with 

 the soil in the process. After it has lain a week or two, dig 

 it again, and mix and pulverize it. If your plants are ready, 

 or you desire something a little earlier than your main crop, 

 you may begin to plant ; if not, then dig again when your 

 plants are ready, and, having grouted the roots (see p. 88), 

 set them out at six or eight inches apart, in a single row along 

 the trench, and shade them until they take root. Keep them 

 perfectly clean, and the earth loose around them, applying 

 liquid manure after each hoeing until they are large enough 

 to earth up for blanching.* 



This process should be performed about every ten days after 

 the plants in the trenches have attained a height of ten or 

 twelve inches. 



To do this properly, choose a fine day for the operation, gath- 

 er the leaves carefully up, place a board on each side of the 

 row, and draw the earth against them ; then raise the boards 

 gradually, and carefully settle the earth to the plants. 



At the approach of winter take up your celery, which should 

 now be from eighteen inches to three feet high, remove any 

 waste leaves, and especially such as may be decaying or touch- 

 ed by frost, and pack it away in earth or sand in a cool cellar 



* Blanching is effected by the exclusion of light, which seems, in gen- 

 eral, essential to the development of color. The law, however, is not ab- 

 solute, for seed-leaves are often found in the common field-pumpkin and 

 in ripe cucumbers which have grown nearly to their natural size and of a 

 fine deep green color. 



