VEGETABLES CELEKY. 183 



ber, will be "blanched" fit for use during January, 

 February, and March. If put in sooner than No- 

 vember 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 

 u plight, 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. Simultane- 

 ously with the formation of the white rootlets the blanch- 

 ing 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 in some way injured by being frozen or 

 driei 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, according 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. 



As the cellar or root-house is usually a damp and dark 

 apartment, there will generally be no necessity to water 

 the Celery after it is packed. Every means of ventilation 



