370 The Principles of Vegetable- Gardening 



CELERY 



Cool, very rich and very 7noist land, the best surface 

 tillage and the most careful attention to all care of the 

 plant, are requisites of good celery culture. Celery is 

 always a seed-bed crop. It may be treated as a succes- 

 sion- or companion -crop, although it usually is the sole 

 occupant of the land in any season. The leaf-stalJcs, 

 which are the edible parts, must ahvays be blanched. 

 The crop must be stored from frost if kept during winter. 



Celery is nearly always grown on bottom lands be- 

 cause it then receives a sufficient and constant supply 

 of moisture. Usually, also, such lands are very rich. 

 Celery of excellent quality can be grown on uplands; 

 but ordinarily more care is required in securing deep 

 tillage and in conserving moisture, and more expense 

 is entailed in adding fertilizers. Successful commercial 

 celery growing on high lands is usually possible only 

 when much stable manure is added and when irriga- 

 tion is practiced. Under those conditions, however, the 

 celery grown on high lands may be fully as good as that 

 raised in reclaimed marshes. For home use celery can 

 be grown in almost any well -tilled and rich garden soil. 

 Level black-soil marsh or bottom lands, in which the 

 water-table does not fall below 2 or 3 feet in summer, are 

 usually chosen for commercial celery growing. Fig. 113. 



Celery is always a transplanted crop. The seeds are 

 small and slow to germinate, and the seedlings are deli- 

 cate. Fig. 112. It is only in a well-prepared seed-bed 

 that satisfactory results can be expected in raising the 

 plants. This seed-bed should have perfect surface tilth 



