128 VEGETABLE GARDENING. 



cold cellar or cold frame, where many of them will form good 

 salable heads. The insect enemies are the same as those of 

 the cabbage. 



Varieties. There are many varieties, but. perhaps, the most 

 desirable are the Snowball and the Early Dwarf Erfurt. 



CELERY. (Apium graveolens. ) 



Native of Europe. — Biennial. — The plants are grown for 

 the fleshy leaf stalks, which are very tender when blanched: 

 one form is also grown for the large fleshy roots. The whole 

 plant has a pleasant aromatic flavor. The seed-stalks are 

 branching and grow from two to three feet high, and have very 

 small yellowish or greenish flowers in umbels. The seed is 

 small, triangular and five-ribbed, having the characteristic 

 aromatic flavor of the plant very pronounced. 



Celery is a crop that is very liable to suffer from the want 

 of rich nitrogenous manures and from a superabundance of 

 or a lack of moisture in the soil. On this account it should 

 be grown on retentive, yet well drained, rich land. Well 

 drained bog land with the water about eighteen inches from 

 the surface is often excellent for this purpose. 



Early Celery. The seed for early celery is generally sown 

 the latter part of February or early in March in boxes in a 

 greenhouse. As soon as the plants are of sufficient size to 

 handle, they are pricked out into other boxes or into hotbeds, 

 where they remain until large enough for planting out, which 

 is sometime in May. The tops of the plants should be sheared 

 off once before they are pricked out and again before they are 

 planted to the open ground, as this makes them stocky and 

 helps them to recover from transplanting. If the leaves are 

 all left on the plants when they are set out, they generally dry 

 up and in so doing take away much moisture from the root. 

 The plants should be hardened off before being set out. Early 

 celery should be bleached by being covered with boards or with 

 boards and straw, since the ordinary way of bleaching it by 

 banking with earth is liable to bring on disease in warm 

 weather. 



Late Celery. The greatest demand for celery is during the 

 autumn and winter months, and very little is marketed during 

 the summer. The seed for autumn and winter celery is gener- 



