CELERY —CHARD 
the middle of July, preferably just before a rain. 
The plant bed should have a thorough soaking 
shortly before the plants are lifted, and each 
plant be trimmed, both top and root, before set- 
ting. The plants should be set from 5 to 6 inches 
apart in the rows and the earth well firmed 
around each one. 
The after-cultivation consists in thorough 
tillage until the time of “handling” or earthing 
up the plants. This process of handling is 
accomplished by drawing up the earth with one 
hand while 
holding the 
. plant with the 
other, packing 
304. A celery pit. 
GY 
FUSE, 
a trench in the 
field. (See p. 515.) 
the soil well around 
the stalks. This process may be 
continued until only the leaves are 
to be seen. For the private grower, 
it is much easier to blanch the celery 
with boards or paper, or if the 
celery is not wanted until winter, the plants may be dug up, packed 
closely in boxes, covering the roots with soil, 
and placed in a dark, cool cellar, where the 
stalks will blanch themselves. In this way 
celery may be stored in boxes in the house 
cellar. Put earth in the bottom of a deep 
box, and plant the celery in it. 
Celery is sometimes stored in trenches in the 
open (Fig. 303), the roots being transplanted 
to such places in late fall. The plants are set 
close together and the trenches are covered 
with boards. A wider trench or pit may be 
made (Fig. 304) and covered with a shed roof. 
Chard, or Swiss chard, is a development of 
the beet species characterized by large suc- 
culent leafstalks instead of enlarged roots 
305. Swiss chard. 
