CELERY. 55 



lifting up or breaking up in such a way as to leave the 

 bed full of cracks and holes. In this manner you can get 

 several barrels of water upon, or rather into, a small bed. 

 The next morning, if the bed has been thoroughly satu- 

 rated, the plants can be taken up with all their roots, 

 and more or less fine soil still adhering to them. 



In raising celery plants on a large scale, I find it de- 

 sirable to sow the seed in rows twenty-one inches apart, or 

 far enough to admit the use of a horse-hoe. This not only 

 saves much labor in hoeing, but the frequent use of the 

 horse-hoe keeps the land loose and mellow, and when 

 you wish to set out the plants, they can be taken up 

 much more easily and with a large mass of fine roots, 

 with soil adhering to them. Before commencing to fork 

 up the plants, we run a narrow cultivator several times 

 between the rows as deep as we can get it; set out the 

 plants with as little exposure of the roots to the air as 

 possible. It does not hurt a plant to wilt when the wilt- 

 ing is caused merely by the evaporation of water through 

 the leaves, but it is a serious injury to let the roots shrivel 

 up from exposure to our hot sun and drying winds. 



SETTING OUT THE PLANTS. 



Before transplanting, however, it is necessary to get 

 trenches ready. In point of fact, the trenches are not 

 trenches at all, according to the old meaning of the 

 term. The way I have done the work on my own farm 

 is to get the land ready by plowing and harrowing until 

 it is quite smooth and mellow. I then take a marker 

 with teeth four feet apart, set a line for the first row and 

 run the marker along the line. After the land is all 

 marked out into rows four feet apart, take a double 

 mould-board plow, with two horses, and run the plow 

 along the row made by the marker. If you have not a 

 double mould-board plow, the work can be done equally 



