THE VEGETABLE AND SMALL-FRUIT GARDEN. 389 



In gathering the shoots for home use it is best to cut 

 them at the surface of the ground. Market-gardeners 

 usually cut the shoots with at least tv/o inches of the white 

 part that grew below the surface. But this lower part is 

 usually tough and slightly bitter, hence for home use it is 

 discarded. If manure is put on in the fall, it must be 

 cultivated in before the shoots start in spring, or it will 

 delay the starting of the shoots often for a period of ten 

 days. Some prefer manuring at the close of the picking 

 season, cultivating in at once. 



The writer has not found any great difference in 

 varieties. More depends on culture and manuring. Yet 

 Conover's Colossal, Moore's, and Palmetto are slightly 

 larger than the common variety that has become a weed 

 in some sections. 



395. Celery Growing. This delicious and healthful 

 vegetable is not grown in private gardens to any great 

 extent. Many seem to entertain the opinion that it is a 

 special crop that can only be raised on special soils, such 

 as drained swamps by trenching. But it can be grown 

 in any good garden soil with level culture. Henderson 

 truly says: "Almost all private cultivators still think it 

 necessary to dig out trenches from six to twelve inches 

 deep, involving great labor and expense, and giving a very- 

 inferior crop to that planted, on the level surface, in the 

 manner practised by market-gardeners." 



Celery is an autumn crop, and in our dry summer 

 climate it is fortunate that the main demand is in late 

 autumn and winter. It loves the cooler and moister air 

 of the autumn months, and is usually planted as a second 

 crop, following peas, early corn, and other early crops. 

 The seed is sown in the open ground in early May on rich 

 mellow ground, rather thinly, in rows eight to ten inches 

 apart. At the West the seeds are merely pressed into the 



