DIFFICULTIES IN CELERY-GROWING. 



two in a circle around each plant, and work the fertilizer 

 into the soil with a hoe. As a rule, the more liberal you 

 are with the fertilizer, the more fruit you will get from 

 your plants. In place of the prepared fertilizer you may 

 use a combination of ashes or other forms of potash, and 

 acid-phosphate or bone-meal. 



Sweet-potato cuttings should be planted early in June. 

 In the latitude of western New York we can only hope for 

 successes with this crop by planting very early varieties 

 on warm sandy soil. To set them in moist muck, or strong 

 clay loam, no matter how well manured, means wasted 

 effort. A recent bulletin of the Louisiana state experi- 

 ment station gives the following hints about growing the 

 crop: "Sweet potatoes require for their best develop- 

 ment a loose, friable, sandy loam, especially fertile in 

 phosphoric acid and potesh. An excess of nitrogenous 

 matter frequently causes an inordinate development of 



vines at the expense of roots ; hence, excessive qualities 

 of ammoniacal manures are to be avoided in the grow- 

 ing of this crop." This exactly accords with our ex- 

 perience. Commercial fertilizers, especially the already 

 mentioned high-grade manures, applied in the hills, have 

 usually given us good crops, while on land heavily ma- 

 nured with barn-yard manure and fertilizers broadcast, 

 the result was " all vine and no root." In case we have 

 to use yard-compost for this crop, we always put it in 

 the hill, and find this perfectly safe. 



Our method of planting sweet-potato cuttings is to 

 prepare ridges about four feet apart, and set the cuttings 

 not less than 15 inches apart on top of the ridge. Leave 

 a slight depression around each plant, into which pour 

 a half-pint of tepid water, which will usually be sufficient 

 to settle the soil firmly around the roots and start the 

 plant anew. 



DIFFICULTIES IN CELERY-GROWING. 



HOW TO OVERCOME RUST AND INSECTS. 



HE article on "New Celery- 

 Culture" published in The 

 American Garden for De- 

 cember, 1891, was so com- 

 prehensive that apparently 

 there is little more to be 

 said on the subject. My 

 own experience, however, 

 brings me to the conclusion 

 that the half has not been 

 told, and that the las,: of 

 celery-culture is sometimes 

 an elusive quality, espe- 

 ciall}- in -.irdens where the soil is heavy and rich. 



Man is ever a progressive animal ; he labors to save 

 himself labor and — alas ! — sometimes gets only his labor 

 for his pains. Such was my experience when I followed 

 the example of my elders and betters, and transplanted 

 good plants, grown in sunshine, into the shade and damp- 

 ness of deep narrow trenches. I watched the slow, sprawl- 

 ing growth of these plants and the effect of frequent 

 irrigation by summer showers, and charged the injury 

 thus done them to the weather bureau. Comparatively 

 few plants matured sufficiently to admit of banking, or 

 were even worth taking up. 



No wonder that celery was once considered an expen- 

 sive luxury and its culture too laborious for the amateur 

 to attempt. Shallow trenching and surface hilling have 

 greatly simplified the matter, and now the culture of 

 celery has become quite general. Where celery is grown 

 in well-drained muck — the ideal soil for it — the process 

 is no doubt just as easy and delightl;ul as it looks on 

 paper, but I have labored in vain for the past five years 

 to perfect celery in my garden "with little labor." The 

 " ease " of celery-culture will never be demonstrated in 

 clay-loam. Although celery plants grow luxuriantly in 



such soil if properly worked, it is not fit for even partial 

 banking. 



I have had very indifferent success in blanching with 

 boards. The process is slow, and I think all celery, 

 whether self-blanching or otherwise, when not banked 

 with earth lacks a certain crispness and delicacy of 

 flavor, which can be imparted only by this method. 

 The ordinary tying-up process often results in crooked 

 stalks. A small boy holds up the plants while some of 

 the various "Solomon Levis" who work in my garden 

 shovel the earth about them and hill them up in the most 

 approved manner ; and what is the result ? Open a row 

 of White Plume celery after a long rain, and you have 

 before you a sight which ought to delight the heart of a 

 naturalist ; at all events here is proof that moth and rust 

 doth literally corrupt. Fine large plants, which would 

 otherwise be white as snow, are plaided and striped with 

 rust ; furthermore, the stalks are furrowed and feather- 

 stitched, nibbled and chiseled by all manner of creeping 

 things. Indeed, I am positive that more creeping, crawl- 

 ing earth-worms, slugs, snails, etc., can be found in my 

 celery-patch than ever went into or came out of the ark ; 

 and the havoc they make is appalling. 



Place a large bunch of celery grown in the above man- 

 ner, root and all, in a glass jar of water, and you have a 

 well-stocked aquarium before you. Even our valuable 

 sub-soiler, the angle-worm, forgets his legitimate calling 

 and fills himself with celery-pulp instead of his native 

 soil. He suffers, in consequence, and so do we. It is a 

 clean case of old-dog-Trayism not looked for so low down 

 in the animal kingdom. To break up this rendezvous of 

 insects and rust and also to lighten the soil, I had several 

 loads of sand drawn to the field and banked a few rows 

 with this. The experiment was successful so far as rust 

 and vermin were concerned, but the plants made no bet- 

 ter growth and the blanching was slow and uneven. 



