254 IRRIGATION FARMING. 



to seed, and therefore become worthless. The plants, 

 while in the seed-bed; 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 grow- 

 ers are more extravagant than this and irrigate as fre- 

 quently as three times a week. In six weeks from set- 

 ting, 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 the leaves, holding them 

 with one hand and pushing the soil close to the plants 

 with the other. This operation must be repeated 

 several times. When the plants are desired to be 

 bleached they must be banked up to the tips of the 

 leaves. Late celery is handled in much the same man- 

 ner as the early, differing from it only in three or four 

 points. The seed is sown six weeks later in a well- 

 prepared bed out of doors, and as it is intended for 

 winter and spring use, it must not be banked up as 

 much as the early crop, for if it is bleached when 

 stored away it will not keep. 



The Sabula Celery Company, of Iowa, has been 



