CELERY 



231 



present. "Get a box 4 or 5 ft. 

 long, 12 in. wide, and 20 or 24 in. 

 deep. In the bottom place 2 or 3 in. 

 of sand or soil — it makes little differ- 

 ence what, provided it is something 

 that will hold moisture. Into this 

 box at the time when Celery is dug 

 up (which in this district ranges from 

 October 25th to November 25th), 

 have the Celery stalks packed per- 

 pendicularly with the roots resting 

 on the sand. All that is necessary 

 is to see that it is packed moderately 

 tight, for if not packed tight the air 

 would get around the stalks and 

 prevent blanching. The box may 

 be then set in any cool cellar, and 

 will keep from the time it is put 

 away until March if necessary. A 



box of the size named will hold 

 about from seventy-five to one 

 hundred roots, according to size. 

 It is quite common for many fami- 

 lies to purchase their Celery from 

 the market-gardeners, place it away 

 in a box in this manner in their 

 cellars during the winter, where it 

 can be conveniently got at, and it 

 costs also in this way less than half 

 what it does when purchased tied 

 up from the benches in the market 

 in the usual way. We have for many 

 years followed this method for what 

 we want for our own private use, 

 finding it much more convenient to 

 get it out of the boxes in the cellar 

 than to go to the trenches in the 

 open ground for it in all weathers." 



Uses. — The leaf-stalks of some kinds and the roots of others 

 are eaten either raw or boiled. In England the seeds (or an 

 extract from them) are used for flavouring soups. Popular as 

 Celery is in England as a cooked vegetable, we have still much 

 to learn about it. The Turnip-rooted, the best of all winter roots, 

 is hardly ever seen out of a few foreign houses. 



Cultivation, in developing the leaves and the root of the Celery, 

 has produced two very distinct varieties of the same plant, which 

 are differently employed and require a different mode of culture. 

 These are known as the Common, or Stalked, Celery, and the 

 Celeriac, or Turnip-rooted Celery. 



Common Celery* ((T^'/^r/ d Cotes). — This is undoubtedly the 

 most anciently known and the most commonly cultivated kind. 

 It requires a good, rich, soft, well-manured soil, rather moist than 

 dry, and is not usually sown where the crop is to be grown. The 

 earliest sowings are made on a hot-bed in January, February, or 

 March, and the seedlings, while still small, are pricked out into 

 another hot-bed, and not planted out permanently until the end of 

 April or the beginning of May. Subsequent sowings, which may 

 be continued till June, are made in the open ground, so as to have 

 a successional supply of fresh, tender stalks all the year round. 

 The seedlings of these later sowings are not pricked out, but 

 simply thinned and allowed to remain where they were sown, 

 until they are finally planted out When this takes place, the 

 plants are set in rows, with a distance of 10 or 12 in. from plant to 

 plant in all directions, and the only attention they require is that 

 of hoeing, and frequent and plentiful waterings, in which they 

 delight. 



* Celery Leaf Blight, see p. 776. Celery Maggot or Leaf Miner, see p. 776. 



