CELERY. 



18] 



portant to watch carefully and remove the cloth covering as soon 

 as the plants appear. The seed germinates slowly. The seed- 

 lings are quite weak and should receive almost constant cultiva- 

 tion. The tops should be sheared off once or twice, as recom- 

 mended for early celery, to make the plants stocky; they should 

 also be thinned out so that there will not be over twenty or thirty 

 plants to the foot of row. When sufficiently large, they should 

 be moved to the field where they are to grow. Treated in this 

 way, the plants will be strong and stocky; if left to crowd one 

 another, they probably will be weak and poor. Some successful 

 growers prefer to transplant once to narrow rows before setting 

 in the field where the crop is to mature. This makes the final 

 transplanting most certain by increasing the fibrous roots, but is 

 not generally necessary, although a good plan under unfavorable 

 conditions. 



In the growing of celery plants it will often be a good plan 

 at the first transplanting to make up a special bed for them. 

 This should be done as follows: A place four feet wide and of 

 any length should be selected, the top soil to the depth of about 

 three inches thrown off, and then rotten manure such as ihat 

 which comes from spent hotbeds or similar material put in to 

 the depth of about three inches. The top soil should then be 

 returned and the plants set out in it. Treated in this way the 

 young plants will develop a- compact root system in the manure, 

 and may be transplanted with a ball of roots almost as well as 

 if they had been grown in pots. Plants ^-rown in this way are 

 especially desirable when transplanting must be done in a dry 

 time, but seedbeds require much water. 



Planting. — Having good plants, the next thing is to set them 

 so as to get a good crop. It is quite a common practice in some 

 sections to grow celery as a second crop after early peas, lettuce, 

 cabbage or beets. In such a case the plants, perhaps, had better 

 not be set out until the first crop has been gathered; but where 

 only one crop is to be grown the plants may be set as soon as 

 big enough. This will generally be from the middle to the latter 

 part of June and for latest use the latter part of July. The land 

 should be thoroughly plowed, harrowed and smoothed off. Fur- 

 rows six inches deep should then be made where the plants are 



