The Canadian Horticulturist. 



149 



^ Jl^e )Kifcl7er) (i^apcler). ^ 



CELERY AND HOW TO GROW rr. 



ELL begun — half done ! " Good plants are indispensable to 

 a good beginning. To insure having them just when soil, 

 season and hands are ready, and the weather favorable, they 

 should be grown at home — a task by no means difficult. 



To grow the plants, procure good seed from a reliable source. 

 As early in spring as the condition of the ground will permit, 

 prepare a smooth, mellow seed-bed in any convenient spot where 

 the soil is rich and reasonably free from weed seeds. Mineral manures make 

 firm, stiff plants ; hence wood ashes and phosphatic fertilizers, applied broadcast 

 and thoroughly raked in, are preferable to even the best compost with its proba- 

 ble weed seed supply. 



Mark out drills not more than one-half inch deep, and not less than ten 

 inches apart, and scatter the seed in them evenly, like sowing carrots. Do not 

 cover, but walk over each row, putting the heel of one foot just ahead of the toe 

 of the other, thus stepping upon every inch of row with his full weight, and 

 pressing the seed firmly into the soil. The natural moisture of the ground 

 insures prompt germination under this treatment ; and the application of a 

 light mulch of litter, practised by some, though perhaps beneficial in a few cases, 

 yet, as a rule, proves superfluous. Allow no weeds to grow, and keep the soil 

 well pulverized between the rows all the time, loose soil being a perfect mulch. 

 Repeated light dressings of nitrate of soda are of wonderful help. Thin where 

 too thick, leaving about fifty plants to the rod. If tops grow rank, shear them 

 back once or twice to make stocky plants. 



I practise sowing a few rows of celery in my vegetable garden at the same 

 time and in the same manner that I sow my early vegetables ; and there, all 

 receive the same treatment. The rows are frequently cultivated with either 

 Ruhlman's wheel hoe or Gregory's finger weeder, and weeded by hand as often 

 as required. Thus I raise a row of celery plants about as cheaply as one of 

 cabbage plants or radishes. The same length of row produces nearly twice as 

 many celery plants as it would cabbage plants, and the former are worth twice 

 as much money. 



There are few localities where a limited number of good celery plants would 

 not find ready sale at 50 cents per hundred. This pays exceedingly well, and 

 often more than the production of marketable celery. Hence these minute 

 directions. 



Growing the crop from good plants is comparatively easy. If not grown at 



