180 



VEGETABLE GARDENING. 



house. As soon as the plants are of sufficient size to handle 

 well, they are pricked out into other boxes or into hotbeds, where 

 they remain until large enough for planting out, which is some- 

 time in May. The tops of the plants should be sheared off once 

 before they are pricked out and again before they are planted to 

 the open ground, as this makes them stocky and helps them to 

 recover from transplanting. If the leaves are all left on the 

 plants when they are set out, they generally dry up an in so 

 doing take away much moisture from the roots. The plants 

 should be hardened off before being set out. Early celery should 

 be bleached by being covered with boards or with boards and 

 straw, since the ordinary way of bleaching it by banking with 

 earth is liable to bring on disease in warm weather. 



Late Celery. — The greatest demand for celery is during the 



autumn and winter 

 months, and very little is 

 marketed during the sum- 

 mer. The seed for au- 

 tumn and winter celery is 

 generally sown in April in 

 the open ground, al- 

 though some of our best 

 growers sow the seed in 

 hotbeds or cold frames 

 April, before the land outdoors can be 

 all. If the seed is sown outside, a piece 

 land is generally selected. The seed is 

 drills .about nine inches apart and one- 

 deep, and the soil is well firmed over it 

 ing. Some growers do not cover cel- 

 all, except by rolling or patting it 

 the back of a spade. If there is dan- 

 seed drying out, some growers shade 

 cotton cloth or with a lath screen rais- 

 ed about Pi^"^^ Celery. f^^^ ^vq^^ ground and so made 

 as to keep off about one-half the sunlight. Another plan 

 is to cover the bed with burlap after sowing the seed and water 

 the seed through it; in this latter case, however, it is very im- 



early 



worked 

 of fine rich 

 sown in 

 quarter inch 

 after cover- 

 ery seed at 

 down with 

 ger of the 

 the bed with Fig. 91 



-White 



