194 The Profitable Culture of Vegetables. 



The lights are put on, but are raised at each corner to allow 

 a current of air to pass through and so keep damp away. 

 The sides and ends of the frame are banked up with earth and 

 the lights are covered with mats. The Celery will be ready for 

 use about the end of December. Great care must be taken 

 that the Celery is not bruised, and that no decayed or diseased 

 plants are stored away. 



Another way of storing Celery for winter, and one which 

 seems worthy of attention, is described in the following extract 

 from Peter Henderson's " Gardening for Profit," an American 

 publication. After describing how the Celery is grown 1ft. 

 apart in each direction, without earthing-up, he goes on to say : 



" When a few hundred roots only are to be stored it can be placed in 

 narrow boxes, say nine inches wide, four or six feet in length, and of a 

 depth a little less than the height of the Celery. A few inches of sand or 

 soil is placed on the bottom of the box, but none must be put between the 

 stalks of the Celery, and the Celery is packed in the box upright, the roots 

 being placed on the sand at the bottom ; the Celery must be packed in as 

 tight as possible, but without bruising. Boxes thus packed and stood on 

 the cool floor of the cellar, if put away in November, will be " blanched " 

 fit for use during January, February, and March. If put in sooner than 

 November it will blanch earlier, and if stored later it will keep later. If 

 larger quantities are to be kept in the cellar, the cheapest practicable way 

 to do so is to begin at one side next the wall, furthest from the entrance, 

 and erect boards across the cellar, nine inches from the wall, and of a height 

 a little less than the length of the Celery that is, if the Celery is twenty- 

 four inches in length, the boarding may be eighteen or twenty inches high. 

 In this narrow division the Celery is packed in upright, as above described 

 for packing in boxes. As soon as the first tier is filled, erect another board 

 trench or division at nine inches distant from the first, and so on until the 

 whole space to be used is filled up. It will be understood that no soil or 

 sand is packed between the stalks of Celery, only two or three inches being 

 strewn on the floor, on which the roots are placed. Simultaneously with 

 the formation of the white rootlets the blanching process begins, which is 

 simply the plant making an effort to grow in the dark, and thus becoming 

 blanched or whitened. We have sometimes complaints that Celery fails to 

 blanch or whiten. In all such cases the roots must have been injured by 

 being frozen or dried too much while being lifted from the field, but this 

 should never happen with ordinary care. A cellar or root-house twenty by 

 twenty feet, so packed, will hold from 3,000 to 5,000 roots of Celery, accord- 

 ing to their size. Care must be taken not to get the board partitions 

 forming the trenches, or divisions between the tiers of Celery, more than 

 nine or ten inches apart, for if at much greater distance the stems and 

 leaves would be in too large masses and would generate heat and rot. 



