s 
SALAD 
151 CROPS 
has been pulverized and fertilized, are ideal 
celery plots, because there the moisture is 
sufficient even during the heat of summer. 
Celery cannot stand exposure to the direct 
heat of the sun, and on exposed places many 
growers find it necessary to shade the crop. 
Celery seeds are very small and slow to sprout 
and are sown broadcast or in rows. If in rows 
the sowing is very shallow. The seedlings are 
tender and delicate, so that it is only in a well- 
prepared seed-bed that the plants can be satis- 
factorily raised. The site of the bed should be 
selected with great care, so as to. protect it from 
hot or dry winds, and to make it convenient 
to water it every evening. Celery requires a 
great deal of moisture. The soil must be in 
such excellent tilth that it will hold moisture 
up to the very surface without the help of a 
mulch. Some growers do use a mulch in grow- 
ing celery, but it makes the delicate seedlings 
so much more delicate that the loss from sun- 
scald upon transplanting is likely to be heavy. 
If you do use a covering of any sort, be careful 
to begin to remove it as soon as the plants be- 
gin to grow, and take it all off before they are 
up enough to be transplanted. But if you make 
your seed-bed carefully, you will not need a 
covering for it. 
