132 



VEGETABLE GARDENING. 



well known commercial sorts like Yellow Danvers 01* Red 

 Wethersfield will be ripe by the middle of August, when they 

 can be harvested; and then the celery can occupy all the land 

 during the cool weather of autumn, when it makes its most 

 rapid growth. 



Handling. As celery grows naturally, it spreads on the 

 surface of the ground, like the carrot. The term handling re- 

 fers to the process by which the leaf stalks of each plant are 

 drawn together and some earth pressed firmly around them by 

 the hands, to hold them in an upright position. After this is 

 done, more earth is drawn towards the plants with a hoe, until 

 there is enough to prevent their spreading open. All celery 

 plants should have this upright form before being stored, and 

 it is all the bleaching treatment necessary for the self-blanch- 

 ing kinds. The land should be thoroughly cultivated and a 

 furrow turned towards the plants on each side of the row before 

 the handling process is begun, so that there may be plenty of 

 loose earth to work with. 



Bleaching with Earth, or "Banking." If the celery is intended 

 for marketing previous to the first of December, it should be 



Fig. 66.— Celery banked up for bleaching. 

 banked up or otherwise bleached in the field. Banking up is 

 done immediately after "handling."' It consists in plowing 

 earth against the celery to begin with and then finishing it off 

 with a shovel or wide hoe until the earth is banked up to the 

 full height of the celery. This had better be done in several 

 operations as the plants grow and need it. 



Bleaching with Boards. Celery that is to be marketed early 

 should be bleached with boards, because if ' ; banked ? ' with 



