CELERY. 53 



deal of space, and should be grown on the farm where 

 land is comparatively cheap, rather than in suburban 

 market gardens, where land is worth from five hundred 

 dollars to five thousand dollars an acre. Vegetables 

 which must be marketed fresh every morning, must be 

 grown near the market, but this is not necessarily the 

 case with Celery. 



When I was a boy it was quite an affair to grow cel- 

 ery. We dug trenches and heavily manured the bottom, 

 put three or four inches of soil on top of the manure, 

 and set a single row of plants six or eight inches apart in 

 the row. The work was done with a spade, and celery 

 was a costly luxury. Where land was high, we sometimes, 

 instead of planting a single row, made the trench four or 

 five feet wide, covered the bottom with manure, put on 

 the soil, and planted four or five rows eight or ten inches 

 apart in this wide trench. I have seen a good crop 

 raised in this way, but it is a great deal of work and will 

 not pay. The truth is, that celery requires a great deal 

 of moisture ; it needs rich land too, but moisture will, to 

 a certain extent, take the place of manure. If you can 

 get land that is well drained and moist also, that is the 

 true place for celery. If the land is not moist you must 

 set the plants farther apart in the rows. For early cel- 

 ery, of which comparatively little is required either for 

 home use or market, the seed must be sown in a hot-bed 

 or in a box in the house. You can sow the seed in rows 

 one inch apart and ten or twelve seeds to each inch of 

 row. When the plants begin to crowd one another, dig 

 them up and prick them out into a cold-frame or cooler 

 hot-bed, or into a larger box in the house. In two or 

 three weeks they will probably need to be transplanted 

 again into a cold-frame or warm border out of doors; set 

 them in rows wide enough apart to admit the use of a 

 hoe, keep clean, and let them remain until wanted to set 

 out. 



