Vol. 0.— No. 3-2. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



25 i 



CELERY. ] 



The qualities of this plant are universally 

 known. There are three or four sorts. The 

 white, the red, the hollow, and the solid. The 

 solid white is the best : but the propagation and 

 cultivation of all are tho same. The whole of 

 that part of the year, during which the frost is 

 eut of the ground, is not a bit too long for the get- 

 ting of fine celery The seed, sown in the cold 

 ground, in April, will lie six weeks before it comes 

 up. A wheel barrow full of hot dung, put in a 

 hole in the ground against a wall, or any fence, 

 facing the south, and covered with rich and fine 

 mould, will bring the seed up in two weeks. If 

 you have a hot-bed frame, oi a hand light, the 

 thing is easy. A large flower-pot will bring up 

 out of the ground plants enough for any family. — 

 As soon as the plants are three inches high, and 

 it scarcely matters how thick they stand, make a 

 nice little bed in open free air ; make the ground 

 rich and the earth very fine. Here prick out the 

 plants at 4 inches apart ; and, of course, 9 in u 

 square foot. They are so very small that this 

 must be carefully done ; and they should be gent- 

 ly watered once, and shaded 2 days. 



A bed 10 fei't long and 4 wide will contain 3f)0 

 plants : and, if they be well cultivated, they are 

 more than any comuion-si.ed family can vi-ant 

 from November till May. — In this bed the plants 

 stand till the muhlle of July, or thereabouts, when 

 they are to go out into trenches. Make the 

 trenches a fool deep and a foot wide, and put 

 them not less than five feet asunder. The ground 

 that you make the trenches in should not be fresh 

 dug ; but be in a solid state, which very conven- 

 iently may be ; for Celery comes on just as the 

 peas and early cabbaires and cauliflov/ers have 

 gone off. L:iy the earth that you take out in the 

 middle of the space between the trenches, so that 

 it may not be washed into them by the heavy 

 rains ; for it will, in such cases, cover the hearts 

 of the plants, and will go very nearly to destroy 

 them. When you have made your trench, put 

 along it some good rich compost manure, partly 

 consisting of wood ashes. Not dung ; or, a- 

 least, not dung fresh from the yard ; for, if you 

 tise that, the celery will be rank and pipy, and 

 will not keep nearly so long or so well. Dig this 

 manure in, and break all the earth very fine as 

 you go. Then take up your plants, and trim ofi" 

 the long roots. You will find, that every plant 

 has offsets to it, coming up by the side of the 

 main stem. Pull all these off, and leave only the 

 single stem. Cut the leaves off so as to leave the 

 whole plant about six inches long. Plant them, 

 six inches apart, keeping, as you are at work, 

 your feet close to the outside edges of the trench. 

 Do not water the plants ; and, if you plant in fresh 

 dug ground, and fi.x your plants well, none of the 

 troublesome, and cumbrous business of shading is 

 at all necessary ; for the plant is naturally hardy, 

 and, if it has heat to wither it above, it has also 

 that heat beneath to cause its roots to strike out 

 almost instantly. When the plants begin to grovi, 

 which they quickly will do, hoe on each siilo and 

 between them with a small hoe. As they grow 

 lip earth their stems ; 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 

 ail 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. — 

 Wlien you begin the earthing take first the edges 

 of tho trenches; and do not go into the niidcile 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 trench- 

 es ; 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 & the mid- 

 dle of each interval a sort of gutter. Earth up 

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

 week a little earth to be put up Thus, in Octo- 

 ber, you will have four ridges of Celery across 

 one of the plats, each containing 108 plants. I 

 shall suppose one of these ridges to be wanted for 

 use before the frost sets in for good. Leave an- 

 other ridge to be locked up by the frost, s much 

 safer guardian than your cellar or barn floor. But. 

 you must cover this ridge over in such a way that 

 the wet will not get down into the hearts of the 

 celery. Two boards, a foot wide each, their 

 edges on one side laid upon the earth of the 

 ridge, formed into a root over the point of the 

 ridge, the upper edge of one board going an inch 

 over the upper edge of the other, and the boards 

 fastened well with pegs, will do the business com- 

 pletely ; for, it is not the frost, but the occasional 

 thaws that you have to fear, and the wet and rot 

 thnt they produce. For the celery that is to serve 

 fro n the setting in to the breaking up of the frost, 

 you must have a bed of sand, or light earth, in a 

 warm part of a barn, or in a cellar ; and there 

 you must lay it in, row after row, not covering the 

 points of the leaves. To have seed, take one 

 plant, in spring, out of the ridg-e left in the gar- 

 den. Plant it in an open place, and you will have 

 seed enough to serve a whole township. For 

 soup, the seed bruised is as good as the plant it- 

 self. — Cob'ietfs Gardener. 



CANKER IN FRUIT TREES. 



Canker, in a great measure, arises from animal- 

 cules, or small or very minute insects or worms, 

 of various kinds ; where this is the case, cut out 

 the whole of the cankered part, clean to the sound 

 wood, wash the part well with the following solu- 

 tion, and also all other paits that seem to be in 

 the least affected ; then gives it a light coat of 

 the medicated tar. 



The medicaled tar, is composed of half an ounce 

 of corrosive sublimate, reduced to a fine powder, 

 and then put into a three pint earthen pipkin, with 

 about half a gill of gin. or other spirit, stirred 

 well totrether, and the sublimate thus dissolved. 

 The pipkin must then be filled by degrees with 

 common tar, and constantly stirred till the mi.xture 

 is intimately blended. This quantity will be suffi- 

 cient for two hundred trees. Being of a very 

 poisonous nature, it should not be suffered to lie 

 carelessly about the house. The sublimate dis- 

 solves better, when united with the same quantity 

 of the spirit of hartshorn, or sal ammoniac. This 

 mixture being apt to run, consistency may be giv- 

 en it, by mixing it with either powdered chalk, or 

 whiting. 



The above composition will be found eminently 

 useful, as no worm of any kind, can live near its 

 influence, and no evil whatever will arise to the 

 trees from its poisonous quality ; it yields to the 

 growth of the bark, and affords a complete pro- 

 tection to the parts against the influence of the 

 weather. 



Dissolve a drachm of corrosive sublimate in a 

 gill of gin or other spirit, and when thus dissolved 

 incorporate it with four quarts of soft '.^aiLi-. This 

 solution will be found to bo the most cUi dual re- 

 medy ever applied to trees, both for tin- 'iestruc- 

 tion of worms of every spccirs and oi ihe eggs 

 of insects deposited in the bail;. Isu vlanger to v 

 the trees is to be apprehended from its poisonous 

 quality, which, in respect to them, is perfectly in-' 

 nocent. 



Peach trees, which are annoyed by worms, 

 should, towards the end of this month, particu 

 larly near, and a little under the surface of the 

 ground, be carefully examined, and where any are 

 found, they must be picked out with the point of 

 a knife, and with as little injury l(i the bark as 

 possible ; for, by lacerating the rind or bark in a 

 careless manner, which is too frequently the case 

 on these occasions, this vehicle, which nature has 

 provided for carrying up the nourishment extract- 

 ed bv the roots, being destroyed, the trees must 

 of course perish, or be weakened in proportion as 

 it is injured. 



This being done, wash all the trunks or stems 

 of the trees, as well as any other parts in which 

 you suspect these vermin or their embryo eggs to 

 be lodged, with the above solution, and also the 

 wounded parts ; after which, ajjply with a brush 

 a slight dressing of the medicated tar to each and 

 every of the wounds inflicted by picking out tho 

 worms. Tl)i.^ will preserve your trees in health 

 and fruilfulness much longer than if left to the 

 mercy of these destructive intruders. 



As to manure, it is well known that where 

 hogs and poultfy are constantly running over the 

 ground, the trees seldom fail of a crop, which ie 

 the best proof that manure is necessary. A.ny 

 manure will suit an orchard ; but the sweepings 

 of coc liouses, bog pens, slaughter houses, poul- 

 try and pidgeon houses, emptying of drains, &c. 

 are more disposed to facilitate the growth and 

 promote the health of fruit trees, than stable man- 

 ure. However, any kind of manure is better thaH 

 none at all. — jM'Mahon's Gardener. 



DOCK. 



F have frequenfiy mentioned the leaves of this 

 weed as being sold in the market at New York. — 

 This weed and the Dandelion are the gardener's 

 two vegeliibh devils. Nothing but absolute burn 

 ing, or a sun that will reduce them to powder, 

 will kill their roots, any little bit of which will 

 grow, and that, too, whether lying on, or in, tho 

 ground. Both bear seed in prodigious quantities. 

 The Dock (which is the wild Rhubarb) puts forth 

 its leaves very quickly after the Dandelion ; and 

 hence it is that it is resorted to as greens in the 

 spring. This is, however a coarse green compar 

 ed with the Dandelion. However, it is better than 

 no greens at all, after five months of winter, which 

 has left nothing green upon the face of the earth. 

 If a rod or two of groimd, on the south side of a 

 wood, were trenched and made rich, and planted 

 with Docks, or Dandelions, the owner, even tho' 

 he had no garden, would not be in want of early 

 greens ; and, it would be better to do this than to 

 have to go upon the hunt after these vegetables, 

 which, though weeds, are not, in every pbce, to 

 be found in any considerable quantity ; or, al 

 least, not without spending a good deal of time 

 in tho pursuit. The Dock-leaf is very wholesome 

 as is also that of the Dandelion. They do nc(; 

 produce gripings as the greater part of the cab 

 bage kinds are apt to do. — Cobbett. 



