THE AURAL. NEW-YORKER. 
NOV 42 
i he water. In setting in the celery it is first 
cleaned ..of all°,decaying leaves and sprouts, 
about 10 inches wide, nnd in the ditch add a 
heavy dressing of finely-rotted manure, and 
fork this nicely iuto the soil. I am perfectly 
conversant with planting upon the level sys¬ 
tem, and have tried it repeatedly, but I much 
prefer the shallow ditch method. [That is 
what we have often said. Bus.] By it we are 
better enabled to concentrate manure and 
water for the benefit of the crops, and the 
assistance it gives at earthing-up time is very 
great. The 4}.j, feet widths are little enough 
to give us room and earth enough to bank up 
our early celery. The three feet widths are 
enough for late crops, as we “ handle" them 
only once, then draw the earth up against 
them with a hoe. Were we to bank them up 
to the top, as we do the early crops, we could 
not reasonably expect to keep them through 
have had to water the celery more or less in 
late summer and fall, but this season not at 
all. The celery has grown well and rust has 
been less prevalent than usual. For earliest 
use I sow about the end of January. This 
gives me leaves for flavoring from May till 
July. Golden Heart, Henderson’s Half-dwarf 
oreveu Giant White Solid, almost any of the 
fast-growing, green-leaved varieties will do; 
but I den’t like any of the self-blanching sorts 
for such early use. My second sowing is made 
about the last days of February or first of 
March, in plots in the greenhouse. Kinds— 
Golden Heart, and White Plume. This gives 
mo celery leaves for flavoring from June on¬ 
ward, nnd heart celery from August omvard. 
My main crop is sowed in a well-prepared 
bed out-of-doors in the last week in April, 
the fact soon became patent—that many of 
the earnest and influential friends of the 
American Pomological Society regarded this 
partial assumption of the name under which 
the older society had so long and so efficiently 
laborpd as indicating t he purpose to profit as a 
society, from the prestige of such labor, with 
the influence consequent thereupon. 
Meantime, with the chauge iu the political 
aspect of tlie National Government, and for 
the first time during the existence of a Na¬ 
tional Agricultural Department, a person im¬ 
bued with horticultural knowledge and sym¬ 
pathies, was placed at its head—a resident of 
the West and possessing the confidence of the 
people It was, moreover, true that if his ap¬ 
pointment was not in tact due to the influence 
of this comparatively new society, it was 
made in accordance with the requests of 
some of its influential members and with the 
full approval of its general membership. 
In compliance with the wish of many of 
those who had favored such appointment, one 
of the early recommendations of t,lie new 
Commissioner was the establishment, within 
his Department, of a Division of Pomology, 
with a thorough expert in this increasingly 
important branch of horticulture iu charge 
—a recommendation which was subsequently 
putin process of realization by act. of Congress, 
The very geueral approval of this action at 
the West and South, coupled wdth an open 
disapproval by some, at least, of the well 
known and influential friends of the older 
society at the East, bad doubtless emphasized 
the Southern and Western feeling already 
spoken of, increasing the teudency to adhere 
to the new organization; nnd, so far as such 
action should be concerned, to relegate the 
older society to the position they consider it to 
have voluntarily assumed—that of a local 
Northeastern society. 
That the friends of the old society were 
greatly misapprehended iu all this, there 
could be no doubt in the minds of its special 
friends and managers. Mr. P. Barry, who 
may fairly lie assumed to represent the feeling 
of the Northeast, as already described, was the 
First Vice-President of the society; and as 
such, as well as on account of his well earned 
prominence as au American potnologist, lie 
stood prominently forth as an involuntary 
candidate for the position of president, one in 
fact for whose rejection or ignoring it would 
seem exceedingly difficult to render an ade¬ 
quate reason. It is difficult to divine what 
would have been the effect of his election to 
the presidency upon the feeling of dissatis¬ 
faction already described; as it would have 
been even more difficult to imagine what 
would have, in such case, been his action iu 
the premises, and the consequent results. 
The positive declination of Mr. Barry, un¬ 
expected and disappointing to his numerous 
friends as it unquestionably was, yet turned 
attention to the next available man for the 
position, the Honorable P. J. Berckmans, a 
Southern man,a former First Vice-President , 
and a person in hearty accord witti all, and 
especially so with the West and South. How 
fully he may succeed in maintaining the pre¬ 
viously high efficiency of the society the fu¬ 
ture alone cun, of course, determine; but it 
seems probable thut the election of a Southern 
man, coupled with the fixing of the next, bien¬ 
nial session at the South, may go very far at 
least to disabuse the public of the feeling that 
this old and honored society is disposed to ac¬ 
cept anything short of the broadest and most 
efficient character. 
The public owes to the American Pomologi 
cal Society and to its late honored President, 
the inauguration nnd the carrying forward, so 
far, of the reform in the nomenclature of 
fruits—a reform which is apparently destined 
to embrace horticultural nomenclature as 
well, if not eveu to extend to other and less 
kindred matters. Till this work shall be ef¬ 
fectively accomplished, t he public can ill spare 
this, the chief if not the only, really effective 
instrument for its performance. 
I say the only instrument, not forgetting 
that the american Horticultural Society has 
indorsed, and in fact adopted, the rules insti¬ 
tuted by the older society for such purpose; 
but I have looked in vein for effective work, 
by the newer society, in this direction. 
then placed upright in the row and the earth 
all the way up is packed very firmly against 
it. Figs. 454 and 455 show how the celery 
is arranged iu the pit. Then 1 have weather¬ 
board coverings each two boards wide, 
which I lay over the ridges, one on 
each side, to keep off rain and snow from 
soaking down through among the celery, 
also as a protection against frosts. These 
board covers are raised one brick high off the 
ground, as shown at Fig. 450. In very cold 
weather a mulching of leaves, litter or sea- 
thatcli is placed over the boards, and is in¬ 
creased or reduced according to the severity 
of the weather. It is far better to raise the 
boarding off the ground (a brick high) than to 
let it lie fiat on the ridge, and it is better to 
have it uuder than over the mulching. We 
need never, except in the case of digging out, 
remove the boarding in winter. The cel¬ 
ery will get ventilation enough under it. and 
it prevents the freezing anti thawing «if the 
surface soil. I don’t mind the surface soil 
freezing an inch or two deep, the good part of 
the celery is beyond that depth; but don’t let 
frost penetrate any deeper,for in spring every 
bit that is frozen in winter will surely rot 
away. Over-covering is very injurious and 
more especially so early in the winter. A 
thin coat of frozen earth over the surface of 
the ridges is also serviceable against the in¬ 
road of field mice. 
But as it would be a very laborious job to 
dig out some celery every day as we may 
wnut it in winter, we bad better secure a lot 
at a time, say a fortnight’s or u month’s sup 
ply, and bring it into the cellar. Here you 
may store it in almost any fashion, providing 
you keep the plants upright and the roots ou 
or in moist sand or earth and not iu large 
bulk together. Shoe or Other packing boxes 
‘JO inch* s or over deep, or the bottom parts of 
cement barrels or the like, would do, or you 
can make up a temporary bed for them on the 
cellar floor, say two boards deep, uiue inches 
wide and any length you please. In the case 
of using packing boxes, w ith cleats and hoards 
run nil open space along the middle to pre¬ 
vent too great a body of celery from being to¬ 
gether and consequently heatiug. There is no 
need of any sand or earth being placed be¬ 
tween the plants, but in cases where I have 
used it, it didu’t do any harm. 
Now, while 1 run four rows to the ridge 
many growers lay past their celery in single 
rows and cover these with boards nailed to¬ 
gether ^-fashion. While for wintering cel¬ 
ery I would use only an open, sunny spot for 
my ridges, au open, north-facing or shady 
slope is best for April celery—somewhere 
where warm sunshine wou’tstrikeit in spring. 
Never “handle,” earth-up, or lift to store 
celery while it is wet or frozen. 
Cold, wet land, and dry, poor land are con¬ 
ducive to rust. Celery grows best in deep, 
rich, moist but well drained land and a shel¬ 
tered situation. It loves abundance of water 
and should never suffer for want of it. 
On puge 178, of Gardening for Profit, I find 
“three feet is umplu distance between the 
dwarf varieties.” Now, my celery for late 
fall and early winter use, consisting of Golden 
Heart, White Plume, Henderson's Half-dwarf, 
New Rose and Golden Self-blanching, was 
sown April 20th, and planted out July 21st 
and JJud in good ground, in rows 4 l <, feet 
apart, aud it is now (Oct. 24tti) well bankid 
up, but not quite to the top, as it is yet in 
active growth, and I reqlly couldn’t bank it 
up properly in any less space._ 
March; whereas, if put iu moderately green, 
we expect to have celery till the end of April 
or first of May. 
Celery banked up in August whitens in 
three to four weeks; that hanked up iu 8e|>- 
tember in four to six weeks; but that not 
banked up till October may not whiteu well 
before New Year’s. White Plume whitens of 
itself, and according to the time when it was 
sown shows this inclination in September or 
October. But if you wish to have it in its 
fullest and whitest beauty, tender and crisp, 
just, earth it up as you would Golden Heart or 
any other celery. 1 was much disappointed 
with White Plume till 1 did this; now I con¬ 
sider it indispensable. And do the same with 
Golden Self-blanching. 
AboutjNovember 15 I usually lift and store 
-? 
Jr////// / / 
This time I sow a little of all the varieties at 
hand: not all for a crop though, but many of 
them for experiment’s sake. The varieties I 
depend ou tor a crop are few; White Plume 
from October till January, nnd Golden Heart, 
Boston Market, Hendersou’s Half-dwarf und 
Red Solid from December till May. If 1 were 
limited to one variety 1 would choose Golden 
Heart; if to two, then I wouldadd White Plume. 
As a long-keeping sort I have nothing better 
than Boston Market; with me it always lias 
kept better than New Rose, Major Clark's, 
London Red or any of the other reds. Hen¬ 
derson's Half-dwarf is the prettiest and clean¬ 
est looking celery on my ground to-day. 
One vital point in celery-growing is, from 
the time the seed germinates till the plauts are 
set out permanently, indeed, I might say, till 
my celery for the winter. I winter it all in 
ridges out of doors, but this is because I have 
neither shed nor cellar room to spare in which 
to store it. But my method is very simple 
und effective; indeed, only once iu several 
years have 1 tailed iu keeping over celery till 
May, and then over-covering caused it to de¬ 
cay. I select a piece of open, sunny, sloping 
laud, naturally well drained, anil mark it off 
in in-foot wide strips. Each of these strips 
givra mu room for a four-row ridge of celery 
and a six to seven foot wide space between it 
and the next ridge, and affords ample room 
for working, digging out, covering, uncover¬ 
ing aud removing thawing snow. The celery 
is put in singly iu rows, to its full depth, and 
as close together os it can be packed in the 
rows. There are four rows with seven to nine 
inches wide of earth between them, in the 
ridge, and the middle of the ridge is only about 
seven inches higher than the general level of 
the ground, just euough to readily throw off 
they are dug up for use or storage, to keep 
them in vigorous growth and without any 
check. Most growers sow two weeks earlier 
than I do. This is all very well if, as soon as 
the plants are big euough to set out, tho 
ground is ready to receive them. In my case 
I seldom have any empty ground in summer, 
and one crop is in or waiting to be put in 
before the other is off. 8o it is with my 
celery. It succeeds marrow peas, cauliflow- 
eis, potatoes, onions or strawberries. And 
rather than keep my plants in the bods till 
they become stunted 1 prefer sowing late; I 
have always found that they have been 
eurly enough. But where the growing season 
is shorter than it is here, my advice is to sow 
proportionately early. I grow altogether on 
the single row system, and raise some 10,000 
heads a year. For celery for use before Jan¬ 
uary, I run the rows 4j^ feet apart; for celery 
CELERY 
PRUNING AND GRAFTING 
WILLIAM FALCONER, 
Tun best time to prune grape-vines is decid¬ 
edly the Indian-Summer time, just as soon as 
the fruit has been gathered. There are sev¬ 
eral reasons for this. Vines that are about 
houses, however wt II they may look with their 
beautiful green drapery of foliage, look very 
untidy, forlorn and scraggy when denuded of 
it, and the shoots hang deploi iuglj iu every 
direction, unpleasant to see aud awkward to 
When and how to sow; varieties; rapid suc¬ 
cession of crops; shallow-ditch preferable 
to level planting; banking up; period for 
blanching ; storing for winter; ridge and 
board protection; teller storing for speedy 
use; storing receptacles; best site for cel¬ 
ery. _ 
This has been a capital year for celery; 
since planting-out time it has never suffered 
from lack of moisture. Before now I alw ays 
from January till May, rows three feet opart, j 
I throw out the rows some six inches deep and 
