62 KITCHEN-GARDENING. 



when the sun pours down the scorching heat, a slight disturb- 

 ance of the ground near the growing carrots will disturb the 

 roots, and the burning sun will wilt them as soon as the weeds 

 that have been pulled up. 



CELERY. 



Celeri. Apium graveolens. 



This vegetable, so much esteemed as a salad, is known in 

 its wild state by the name of Smallage ; and is found in great 

 abundance by the sides of ditches, and near the sea-coast of 

 Britain. The eftects of cultivation are here strikingly ex- 

 hibited, in producing from a rank, coarse weed, the mild and 

 sweet stalks of the Celery. This circumstance should stimu- 

 late the young gardener to aim at improvement in the cultiva- 

 tion of plants in general. 



It is customary with some gardeners to raise their early 

 plants in hotbeds ; but as plants thus raised are apt to pro- 

 duce seed-stalks, it is much safer to cultivate them in cold 

 beds, prepared as directed for the raising of early Cabbage- 

 plants. The seed for a general crop may be sown the last 

 week in March, or early in April, in rich, mellow ground, and 

 ia a situation where the plants can be protected from the 

 parching heat of a summer sun (a border against a nortli 

 aspect is the most suitable). Some sow the seed broadcast ; 

 but the plants will be much stronger if raised in drills. The 

 drills may be half an inch deep, and six inches apart, so that 

 a small hoe can be worked between the rows ; and if properly 

 attended to, every ounce of seed sown will produce ten thou- 

 sand strong plants or more. The early sown plants should be 

 pricked out in a nursery-bed of cool rich earth, as soon as they 

 are two or three inches high, there to remain about a month 

 after which they will be fit to transplant into the trenches. 



