CELERY. 



137 



guano-water, or liquid-manure, very much diluted, is ex- 

 ceedingly beneficial. The plants also should be kept 

 clean and thinned out, while not over three or four inches 

 high, to three inches apart. Choose damp weather for 

 this purpose. Those which are taken up may be replanted 

 in a bed prepared by thorough digging in the richest part 

 of the garden. With the uppermost six inches of this bed 

 should be incorporated as rich a coat of well-rotted manure 

 as can well be mixed in. Plant them out three inches 

 apart each way, and water them thoroughly every night, 

 unless the weather be cold or wet. Keep them shaded 

 during the day for a short time, until established. Here 

 let them remain until fit to plant out permanently. Those 

 which remain in the seed-bed should have their tops short- 

 ened, to make them grow more stoutly, and be frequently 

 watered. The earth should always be stirred the morning 

 after giving water, to prevent the ground from growing 

 hard. The transplanted ones will make the finest crop ; 

 but for late celery, they should be cut oS nearly to the 

 crown, two or three times, to make them grow stout. 

 When the plants are grown from six to nine inches high, 

 it will be the proper time to plant those for early celery 

 where they are to remain. And now, if you wish extra 

 fine heads, trench your celery -patch, which must be very 

 rich, twenty inches deep, turning the rich soil to the bot- 

 tom, and the poor subsoil to the top, which will be just as 

 good for blanching as the best. As the celery is to be 

 planted in a trench, this will thix)w the best of the soil* 

 where the roots of the plant can appropriate it. In the 

 soil thus prepared, dig trenches three and a half feet apart, 

 a foot wide, and the same in depth. Draw a line and mark 

 out the sides by thrusting down the edge of the spade before 

 digging out the earth, and then lay the soil taken out 

 carefully on each side in the spaces between the t^^p.uclies 



