>78 
CULTIVATION OF CELERY.-SACKING WOOL, ETC. 
CULTIVATION OF CELERY 
The kinds of celery (Apium graveolens dulce ), 
preferable for general culture, are those known by 
gardeners under the names of “ Common Upright 
Italian,” “Large Hollow Upright,” and the “ Solid- 
stalked Upright,” all of which may be raised from 
. seeds, sown in the middle and northern states, with 
slight forcing, from March until the first or second 
week in May. One ounce of seed is sufficient for 
10,000 plants, and may be sown in drills 6 inches 
apart, in hot beds, or rich, mellow borders, after 
the manner of cabbages, watering moderately in dry 
weather both before, and after it is up. As soon as 
the plants are 2 or 3 inches high, they may be 
transplanted 3 or 4 inches apart, in a sunny situa¬ 
tion, into temporary beds, formed of old hot-bed 
dung, or well-rotted stable manure, mixed with one 
fourth of its bulk of finely-pulverized earth. These 
beds should be laid 6 or 7 inches thick on a plot of 
ground having a surface made hard by compression, 
or one that has not been broken by the spade or the 
plow’, in order to prevent the pushing of tap roots, 
and thereby prevent the celery from running to seed, 
before the following spring. The nursling plants 
should be watered daily until they have taken firm 
root, and as often afterwards as the dryness of the 
weather may require. 
When the plants have acquired a height of 6 or 
8 inches, they may be removed, in monthly succes¬ 
sion from June until September, into a soil rather 
moist, and rich in vegetable mould, but not rank from 
new or unrotted dung. Previous to the last trans¬ 
planting, the ground should be thoroughly worked 
with the spade or plow, to a depth of 12 to 18 
inches, according to the nature of the soil, and then 
divided into trenches 12 inches deep, 18 inches 
wide, and 4 feet apart from centre to centre. The 
trenches should next be filled, 9 inches deep, with 
a compost of well-rotted dung, mixed with one 
fourth of its bulk of strong sandy loam. The 
plants should be taken up from the nursery beds, 
with as much soil as will conveniently adhere to 
their roots, and after removing the side shoots from 
the stems, they may be set, by hand, 9 or 10 inches 
apart in the centre of each trench, watering them as 
«ften as the weather may require, until they are 
ready to be earthed up. 
As the plants in the trenches rise from 10 to 15 
inches high, you may commence “ landing,” or 
“earthing,” them up for blanching; but never do 
this while they are wet. In the first two mould¬ 
ings, the earth should be sparingly raised to the 
stems, forming a slight ridge on each side of the 
rows, and leaving a hollow to receive the full bene¬ 
fit of the waterings or rain. When the plants be¬ 
come strong enough to bear a mould 6 inches in 
height, the earth may be drawn up equally on each 
side, preventing it as much as possible from falling 
into the hearts of the plants by keeping closely to¬ 
gether the outer leaves. This may be done by ty¬ 
ing together long bands of bass matting, fastening 
one end to the outer plant in the row, then passing 
it to the next plant, giving it a turn round the leaves 
and so on until the row is complete. When the 
moulding is finished, the string may be unravelled 
and used for the next row. The operation of 
earthing up should be repeated once or twice a fort¬ 
night, until the plants are ready for use, gradually 
diminishing the breadth of the top of the ridge, un¬ 
til it is drawn at last to a point near the tips of the 
plants. 
The celery intended to be preserved during win¬ 
ter should be unearthed and* cut off close to the 
roots. A ridge of earth should next be formed of 
a height corresponding to the length of the 
heads, which should be placed parallel to each 
other up and down the sides of the ridge. More 
earth may then be banked against these heads, 
and the operation alternately repeated until you 
dispose of the whole crop. If the celery thus 
preserved be liable to suffer from frost, the surface 
of the deposit should be covered with a layer of 
litter or straw from 3 to 9 inches thick, which may 
be removed as fast as the heads are dug up for use. 
^ A large portion of the celery, sold in the New 
York market, is produced at Harsimus, near Jersey 
city. The past season, Mr. Benjamin Mills, of that 
| place, raised 60,000 heads, which at 6 cents each, 
would be worth $3,600. Messrs. John and 
Francis Brill, raised each, 40,000 heads. The 
mode of culture practised by these gentlemen, we 
are informed, differs but slightly from the one above 
described. Their ground consists of a rich loam, 
resting upon a subsoil of clay. It is well worked 
with the plow to a depth of 12 to 14 inches, and is 
liberally supplied with well-rotted stn._e manure. 
The early celery is planted in trenches 6 inches 
deep, half filled with manure ; and that of later 
growth is set in drills filled level to the surface with 
the same kind of manure. 
DIRECTIONS FOR SACKING WOOL. 
Wool, intended to be sent to a distant market, 
may be put up and pressed in bales after- the man¬ 
ner of cotton, ol- it may be crowded into sacks hold¬ 
ing from 200 to 250 lbs. If designed to be shipped 
on a long voyage, it would be more economical to 
press it into square bales, as it would then occupy 
less bulk, and consequently effect a saving of 
freight. But in the interior of a country, where 
conveniences for baling are not always at hand, 
sacks may be employed, made of 40-inch “ bur¬ 
laps,” or 45-inch “gunny cloth,” 7 k feet long. 
Each of these sacks may be made of a piece of cloth 
5 yards in length, by doubling the ends until they 
meet and sewing up the sides with twine. 
The mouth of a sack may next be sewed to a 
strong hoop of w*ood or iron (diameter 25 inches 
for the burlaps and 28 inches for the gunny cloth); 
then let down its body through a circular hole, two 
inches less in diameter than the hoop, cut in an upper 
floor of a building, or of a temporary scaffold erected 
for the purpose, where it can swing clear beneath. 
One man may then get into the sack, while another 
hands him the fleeces, which he should place in 
regular layers, pressing them down in the mean¬ 
time, with his feet, until it is filled. Aften this, 
the sack may be slightly raised, the hoop disen¬ 
gaged, the mouth of the sack sewed up with 
twine, and the oper ation is comp lete. 
Keeping Worthless Dogs. —It is universally 
admitted, that what will keep a dog would keep a 
pig. It need not be said then, which would be 
found the most profitable to a poor man’s family, at 
Christmas, a dog for his children to play with, or 
ham and good bacon to fill their stomachs. 
