88 



KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. 



[chap. 



the great pleasures of gardening, that one has ahnost always some- 

 thing to give away from one's superabundance ; and here the gift 

 ^s accompanied with no ostentation on the one side, and without it 

 being deemed any favour on the other side. Your plants being 

 ready, about the middle of July, perhaps, make the trenches a foot 

 deep and a foot wide, and put them at not less than Jive feet asun- 

 der. The ground that you make the trenches in should not be fresh 

 dug, but be in a solid state, which very conveniently may be ; for 

 celery comes on just as the peas and early cabbages and cauliflowers 

 have gone off. Lay 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 case, 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 ma- 

 nure, partly consisting of wood ashes. Not dung ; or at least not 

 dung fresh from the yard ; for if you use that, the celery will be 

 rank and^zpy, 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 off the long roots. You 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, and fix them, in the manner so mi- 

 nutely dwelt on under the article Cabbage, keeping, as you are at 

 w^ork, your feet close to the outside edges of the trench. Do not 

 icater the plants; and if you plant m fresh-dug ground, and fix 

 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 grow, which they quickly wdll do, hoe on each side and 

 between them with a small hoe. As they grow up, earth their 

 stems ; that is, put the earth up to them, but not too much at a 

 time ; and let the earth that vou 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. WHien you begin the earthing, 

 take first the edges of the trenches ; and do not go into the middle 

 of the intervals for the earth that you took out of the trenches. 



