CELERY 63 



ties, the rows may be from 4% to 5 ft. apart and the plants 

 7 or 8 in. in the row. 



The seed for an early crop should be sown in February or 

 early in March in shallow boxes, which may be placed in a 

 hotbed or sunny window, or sown directly in the soil of a 

 hotbed. Cover the seeds thinly and press the soil firmly 

 over them. When the seedling plants are about one inch 

 high they should be transplanted to other boxes or hot- 

 beds, setting the plants I in. apart in rows 3 in. apart. At 

 this transplanting, as with the following ones, the tall leaves 

 should be cut or pinched off, leaving only the upright growth, 

 as with the utmost care it is almost impossible to prevent 

 the outside leafstalks from wilting down and dying. The 

 roots of the plants should also be trimmed back at each trans- 

 planting in order to increase the feeding roots. The plants 

 should be set as deep as possible, care being taken, however, 

 not to allow the heart of the plant to be covered up. The 

 varieties usually grown for an early crop are the so-called 

 self-blanching varieties. They may be made fit for the table 

 with much less labor than the late crop, the shade required 

 to blanch the stalks being much less. When only a few short 

 rows are grown in a private garden, screens of lath may be 

 made by driving stakes on each side of the row and tacking 

 lath on, leaving spaces of an inch or more for the light to 

 enter ; or each head may be wrapped in paper, or a tile drain 

 pipe may be set over the plant. In fact, any material that 

 will exclude the light will render the stalks white and 

 brittle. 



The seed for the main or fall crop should be sown in April 

 or early May in a seed bed prepared by forking fine, well 

 rotted manure into a fine soil, sowing the seed thinly in 

 rows 8 or 10 in. apart, covering the seed lightly and firm- 

 ing over the seed with the feet, hoe or back of a spade. 

 This seed bed should be kept moist at nil times until the 

 seed germinates, either by close attention to watering or by 

 a lath screen. The use of a piece of cloth laid directly on 



