v.] 



CELERY, CHERVIL. 



89 



Keep working backwards, time after time, that is earthing after 

 earthing, till you come to the earth that you dug out of the trenches ; 

 and by this time, the earth against the plants will be above the 

 level of the land. Then you take the earth out of the middle, till 

 at last the earth against the plants forms aridgey and the middle 

 of each interval a sort of gutter. Earth up very often, and do not 

 put much at a time. Every week a little earth to be put up. 

 You should always earth up when the ground is dry at top ; 

 and in October, when winter is approaching, earth up very 

 nicely to within four or five inches of the very top. When 

 you want celery for use, you begin at the end of one trench, remove 

 the earth with a spade and dig up the roots. The wet, the snow, 

 aidecf' by the frosts and by the thaws, will, if care be not taken, rot 

 the celery at the heart, particularly the wet which descends 

 from the top, lodges in the heart and rots it. To prevent this, two 

 boards, a foot wide each, form the best protection. Their edges 

 on one side laid upon the earth of the ridge, formed into a roof 

 over the point of the ridge, the upper edge of one board going an 

 inch over the upper edge of the other, and the boards fastened well 

 with pegs : this will do the business effectually ; for it is the wet 

 that you have to fear, and not the frost. If long and hard frost be 

 apprehended, a quantity of celery should be taken up and laid in a 

 bed of sand or light earth in a shed or cellar ; for, when the ground 

 is deeply frozen, it is sometimes impossible to get it out without 

 tearing it to pieces ; and it keeps very well for several weeks in a 

 shed or cellar. To have the seed of celery, take one plant or two, 

 ia the spring, out of the ridge that stands last. Plant it in an 

 open place, and it will give you seed enough for several years ; for 

 the seed keeps good for ten years at least, if kept pretty much 

 from the air, and in a dry place. # 



140. CHERVIL. — This, like celery, spinage, and some few 

 other garden plants, is very much liked by some people, and cannot 

 be endured by others. It is an annual plant : its leaves a good deal 

 like those of double parsley : it is used in salads, to which it gives an 

 odour that some people very much like : it bears a seed resembling 

 that of a wild oat ; it is sowed in rows late in March or early in 

 April ; and a very small patch of it is enough for any garden : it 

 bears its seed, of course, the first summer, bears it too in great 

 abundance, and, if properly preserved, the seed will last for six or 

 seven vears at the least. 



