V. CELERY. 



which they quickly will do, hoe on each side and between 

 them with a small hoe. As they grow up, earth their 

 stews ; that is, put the earth up to them, but not too much 

 at a time ; and let the earth that you put up be finely 

 broken, and not at all cloddy. While you do this, keep 

 the stalks of the outside leaves close up to prevent the 

 earth from getting between the stems of the outside leaves 

 and the inner ones ; for, if it get there, it checks the plant 

 and makes the celery bad. When you begin the earthing, 

 take first the edges of the trenches; and do not go into the 

 middle of the intervals for the earth that you took out of 

 the trenches. Keep working backwards, time after 

 time, that is earthing after earthing, till you come to the 

 earth that you dug out of the trenches j and, by this 

 time, the earth against the plants will be above the level 

 of the land. Then you take the earth out of the middle, 

 till, at last, the earth against the plants forms a ridge, and 

 the middle of each interval a sort of gutter. Earth up 

 very often, and do not put much at a time. Every week a 

 little earth to be put up. You should always earth up 

 when the ground is dry at top ; and, in October, when 

 winter is approaching, earth up very nicely to within four 

 or five inches of the very top. When you want celery 

 for use, you begin at the end of one trench, remove the 

 earth with the spade, and dig up the roots. The wet, the 

 snow, aided by the frosts and by the thaws, will, if care 

 be not taken, rot the celery at the heart, particularly the 

 wet, which descends down from the top, lodges in the 

 heart, and rots it. To prevent this, two boards, a foot 

 wide each, form the best protection. Their edges, on 

 one side laid upon the earth of the ridge, formed into a 

 roof over the point of the ridge, the upper edge of one 



