1893 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
491 
On a berry and fruit farm, suppose I attempted to raise my own 
Thanksgiving turkey, It would cost me more than $25 of damage and 
neglect of other work. 
Plant growing Is one of my specialties, and I can deliver to you, or 
send by express, prepaid, for $1.75 my 
family box of plants 
CONTAINING 
15 Tomato of the largest and solldest variety. %% months old. 
30 Early celery, self-blanching. 
20 Cabbage, earliest and tenderest. 
10 Pepper, fancy wrinkled. 
25 Onion, those large Italian, or Prizetakers, which often grow to 
weigh one pound each. 
Remember these are not seedlings hastily pulled from an out-door 
bed", but fine transplanted i lants, grown under glass, delivered to 
you growing In a box, so you can wait for a nice shower, or set them 
out at once, with a nice ball of earth to each, and without a check to 
their growth. All 1 ask is that you give your order to your postmas¬ 
ter, or merchant, at once, so I shall know how many boxes to prepare. 
You give the order, I’ll do the rest. What could be nicer or cheaper? 
R. N.-Y.—We give miniature reproductions of these 
circulars here to show the means employed by this 
man to attract attention to his business. Who will 
say they are not legitimate and business-like ? The 
objectors will probably be those who claim that he 
was “lucky” to obtain such prices. We call these cir¬ 
culars paper middlemen. They are more generous 
than the flesh-and-blood article. 
CELERY FOR THE HOME TABLE. 
ARE YOU DOING YOUR DUTY ? 
Instead of being thought a luxury, celery should be 
a necessity. There is no reason why every farmer’s 
family should not have all they -ant from early fall till 
April, but comparatively few have such a supply. I 
noticed in The R. N.-Y. last year that one of the edi¬ 
tors had visited eight farmers’ gardens in one day and 
only one had any celery in it We often hear farmers 
say that they can buy all the celery as well as other 
vegetables and small fruits they want cheaper than 
they can raise them, but I’m afraid that, as a general 
thing, such people’s tables are not overloaded with 
garden products. I don’t believe in doing anything 
that doesn’t pay in farming any more than in any 
other business, but taking into consideration the supe¬ 
rior quality of freshly picked vegetables over any that 
we can buy, I think it pays most of us to have a gar¬ 
den, and a good one, too. 
“Easy as Rolling off a Log.” 
It is now so easy to get well-grown celery plants 
cheap that it is not worth while for most of us to 
attempt to raise them ourselves. If there is no seller 
in one’s neighborhood, he can get good plants by mail 
from those who advertise in any of the agricultural 
papers. If, however, he wishes to raise his own 
plants, he should sow the seed thinly in the open 
ground—not in a cold-frame or hot-bed—as soon as it 
becomes dry and warm in the spring. Celery seed 
germinates very slowly. Thin the plants to a couple 
of inches or more apart, and shear off the tops several 
times to make them stocky. Celery is grown as a 
second crop, following early potatoes, peas and such 
like. The ground cannot be made too rich for it. 
Well-rotted stable manure is the best fertilizer ; if 
this cannot be had, use “chemicals.” Spade the 
manure thoroughly into the soil. It was formerly the 
universal custom to dig a trench for it, and put the 
fertilize • in the bottom, but celery plants are now 
generally set upon the surface. The only advantage 
of trenching was that the banking up was easier, 
while the disadvantages were that the soil was about 
all taken out and the plants set in the subsoil, and the 
young plants were very likely to be ruined by heavy 
rains washing the earth upon them. Set the plants in 
rows three feet apart and six inches apart in the row. 
If desired three or four rows may be set together 
about six inches apart, thus making beds three or four 
plants wide. If this be done, more than three feet 
should be left between the beds that there may be 
plenty of earth for banking up. About the only thing 
gained by the use of these beds is that, being more 
compact, the celery may be covered up at the approach 
of cold weather and left where it grew all winter. In 
setting out the plants, care should be taken to press 
th e soil firmly about the roots. If the ground is dry, 
give them a good soaking. Shade from the sun a few 
days till they get firmly rooted. In the cultivation of 
this crop we must always remember never to allow 
any soil to get into the hearts of the plants. 
After the young plants have become established, all 
that needs to be done for several weeks is to keep the 
ground free from weeds and thoroughly stirred. 
Celery likes plenty of moisture and if one can give it 
a good watering every two or three days it will pay 
him. It makes but a slow growth through dry, hot 
August, but with cooler and moister September 
weather it begins to grow rapidly, and at each hoeing 
a little more earth should be drawn up around the 
plants until those intended for fall use are banked to 
the very tips of the leaves. Take the plant in one 
hand while the earth is drawn up with the other. If 
it is in beds it is quite necessary to have one person 
hold the plants while another throws up the earth. 
Celery intended for late winter and spring use should 
not be banked much while growing, as it will blanch 
perfectly if properly stored, and will keep better. 
Enough earth, however, should be hoed up around 
the plants to keep them in an upright position ; for if 
left to grow without any handling, celery becomes a 
spreading plant instead of an upright one. 
Blanched and Brittle the Best. 
The labor involved in blanching celery has been the 
great drawback to its more general culture. It has 
now been found that just as good celery can be grown 
by setting the plants six or seven inches apart each 
way on very rich soil and doing nothing more to them, 
except to keep the ground free from weeds till they 
are large enough to completely shade it. Being so 
close together, they will grow straight up and blanch 
perfectly. This method has been thoroughly tested 
on both a large and small scale and has proved a 
grand success. Celery grown in this way should be 
sheltered from the wind in some manner, as it is so 
brittle that a heavy wind will make havoc with it. 
The place to grow the family supply by this new 
celery culture is in the hot-bed after it has been used 
for early vegetables. Here one has all that can be 
desired in the way of rich soil, and the sides of the 
bed protect the tender growth from the wind. I gave 
this hot-bed method a thorough trial the past season 
and it has proved a complete success in every way. 
The celery is entirely free from rust or soil of any 
kind, and is perfectly blanched and so brittle that it 
is almost impossible to pull up a plant without break¬ 
ing it. 
For Winter Use ; Varieties. 
Celery for winter use may be stored in a root-cellar 
or in a pit in the garden. Although growing celery 
will stand several hard frosts without injury, it is 
always best to care for it before there is any danger of 
freezing. Never handle it while wet or frosty. Should 
the tops become frozen, shear them off before storing. 
If put into a cellar, the roots should be moistened oc¬ 
casionally without wetting the leaves. Quality con¬ 
sidered, I think a pit in the garden is the best place 
for keeping celery. Dig a trench the width of a spade 
and as deep as the celery is tall, and. as long as may be 
needed. Into this set the plants upright and close to¬ 
gether. Make a cover by nailing two wide boards 
together y\-fashion. It is best to have this roof in sec¬ 
tions about two feet long for ease in getting at the 
celery. Better still is a roof made of wide old doors, 
which will make a place large enough for one to crawl 
into to look after the celery. If taken care of, these 
covers will last for years. Let the roof project a little 
beyond the celery at each end. As the weather be¬ 
comes cold, cover well with leaves or bog hay, but 
never use anything containing any grain, as it will 
draw mice. Leave openings in the ends for ventila¬ 
tion, and have something on hand to stop them up with 
on cold nights. Stored in this way, celery will keep 
all winter, will blanch perfectly and retain all its good 
qualities. It can be taken out at one end of the trench 
as wanted with very little trouble Celery grown in 
a hot-bed can very easily be covered up and kept all 
winter right where it grew. 
Varieties. —A word as to the varieties : Dwarf and 
half-dwarf kinds are much better than the tall-grow¬ 
ing or giant sorts. The so-called self-blanching varie¬ 
ties are finer in appearance than the others, but gen¬ 
erally inferior in quality. The red celeries are better 
in quality and much better keepers than any of the 
others, but are comparatively little grown on account 
of a prejudice against the color. The tender heart- 
stalks are not the only parts of the celery plant that 
are useful. The outside stalks are excellent for salads, 
and cooked celery is a very good but little known 
dish. MERRITT M. CLARK. 
TWO BITS OF FARM HELP. 
The first is the straw hat shown on the horse’s head 
at Fig. 170. Some thoughtful man has cut holes in an 
old straw hat, thrust the horse’s ears through them— 
and there you are. Why should not a horse wear a 
hat this broiling hot weather? Protect his head. You 
need his brains as well as his muscles, and stewed 
brains are of no use to anybody. Don t cut your new 
straw hat up, but do something to keep the horse’s head 
cool. 
Another simple scheme is shown at Fig. 171. Some 
cows get in the habit of sucking their own milk. Here, 
for example, is a letter from a Virginia lady : 
I bought a Jersey heifer four years ago, and, after dropping her 
first calf In July, she commenced sucking herself In August. I never 
let her calf suck, but taught It to drink the milk. Now I have another 
heifer that will be fresh In a week or 10 days, and I want to know If It 
would be better for me to let the calf suck at milking time. As she Is 
the calf of the one mentioned before, and I do not want another cow 
with such a falling, I would like to know If my not letting her calf 
suck caused her to suck herBelf. 
We do not think the failure to let the calf suck had 
much, if anything, to do with it. In fact, we do not 
know how a cow learns this bad habit, and wish some¬ 
body would tell us. A “cure” is hard to effect, but 
the device shown in the picture is a good preventive. 
The boards fastened on either side of the neck enable 
the cow to feed from the ground, but would not permit 
her to turn around to her side. 
[Every query must be accompanied by the name and address of th 
writer to Insure attention. Before usklng a question please see If It Is 
not answered In our advertising columns Ask only a few questions at 
one time. Put questions on a separate piece of paper.] 
CLOVER IN THE FALL. 
GIVING IT THE WHOLE FIELD. 
Have you ever tried the experiment of sowing clover In the fall, 
giving It the entire field without other grain or grass? If so, will you 
be kind enough to tell us what you think of this plan? Can you advise 
others to try It under any circumstances? 
I never tried it but once and that was several years 
ago. It did well, and I cut a heavy crop the next 
summer. We sow our clover in the spring in the 
wheat, but if for any cause the clover did not catch, I 
should not hesitate to put the ground in good order 
and sow the seed in August or the first of September if 
the ground was moist enough to insure germination. 
Indiana. samuel mills. 
Don’t Keep the Clover Alone. 
Clover may be sown alone to advantage if it is put 
in early enough, say, no later than September 5 in 
this latitude—Ithaca, N. Y.—provided the land is moist 
enough to bring it up quickly so that it may get a 
good hold on the ground before winter sets in. But 
there is nothing to be gained by this method, for 
where the land is properly cultivated and emiched, 
the clover which is sowed in the spring with the grain, 
will be not only large enough when fall sets in, but 
too large for the best results. Clover is easily injured 
by having too much top or by having too heavy a 
mulch of fallen weeds or manure spread on the land 
in the fall. Last year, in order to keep our clover 
from heading out after the wheat was cut, it was 
mowed and left on the ground ; the fall being an un¬ 
usually fine one, the clover made such a rapid growth 
after the mowing that the field was mowed a second 
time. The moving of wheat stubble serves a three¬ 
fold purpose: it prevents the clover from heading, 
causes it to tiller and prevents the weeds from going 
to seed; so while clover may be successfully started 
alone, it is far better in the grain districts to start it 
with some one of the cereals. prof. i. p. Roberts. 
