142 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [P. D. 4. 



Celery. 



Celery plants usually are banked up or covered with earth 

 before frost endangers them. Then as the weather becomes 

 colder the resultant ridge may be covered with straw, horse 

 manure or corn fodder, and they may be kept thus banked until 

 cold weather. They should be taken out, however, before the 

 ground is frozen hard. INIany large growers handle the last of 

 the crop by "trenching." First, the rows are banked with 

 earth and allowed to remain there so long as there is little 

 danger from heavy frosts. Then the plants are lifted and eight 

 or ten rows are brought together and set, with the roots bedded 

 close together, in the bottom of a shallow trench. Sometimes 

 blanching boards are set along the sides of the trench and the 

 celery filled in between. The sides are then banked up with 

 earth and a covering of boards, straw or some similar material 

 is put on. In this latitude such a trench must be well covered 

 and well ventilated. Some of the large growers store celery in 

 a large, roofed pit, giving it extra ventilation, covering and 

 special care. Sometimes, for home use, celery is dug roots and 

 all and planted in moist earth on the cellar floor, or placed in 

 the cellar in boxes or barrels with the roots down and earth 

 around them. The plants must be kept dark and cool with 

 good ventilation, and the soil about the roots must be kept 

 moist, but wetting the tops should be avoided. When handled 

 in this way the plants grow slowly and the exclusion of the 

 light blanches them. 



Onions. 



Onions, when well cured, keep best, tied up in bunches by 

 the tops and stacked like hay, if stored in dry, well-ventilated 

 pits. Some growers prefer to store them in contact with the 

 earth. Onion storage houses must be ke'pt dry and frost-proof. 



A'pyles. 

 Apples for storage should be well matured, but firm and 

 hard. They should not be allowed to lie on the ground in the 

 sun to ripen, as such fruit decays early. When picked they 

 should be cooled overnight in the field in open boxes, and kept 

 in a cool place thereafter. Apples keep best at a temperature a 



