8 The Colorado Experiment Station. 
is heavier, make a hole in the soil with a pointed dibble held in the 
right hand and place a plant in the hole with the left, the dibble 
then being stuck into the soil beside the plant to close the hole. It 
is a good plan to wet the roots with puddled mud just before starting 
to set a handful. There is quite a knack and a whole lot of hard 
work in setting, but it can be learned much more quickly by watch¬ 
ing a good workman and by doing it oneself than by reading how 
to do it. 
Cultivation. —Since celery is transplanted to fields which are 
clean of weeds, the plants have the start of the weeds. However, 
it is generally necessary to give one or two hand weedings. A 
wheel hoe is used once or twice, and four or more cultivations are 
given with the horse and a harrow-tootli cultivator in the wide 
spaces. Some make a practice of cultivating once a week during 
the growing season. Those who blanch with dirt often use a five- 
tooth cultivator the last time or two, so setting the teeth as to throw 
some dirt toward the rows. 
Irrigation. —Concerning irrigation each grower has his own 
ideas as the result of his experience under his particular conditions. 
Some do not irrigate more than two or three times during the sea¬ 
son. Others irrigate nearly every week, commencing at the time of 
setting. On sandy, well-drained soils it is necessary to irrigate very 
often. One must use his own judgment, always remembering that 
celery grows in swamps in its natural condition and, therefore, can¬ 
not stand drought. 
During the growing season the water is run in the furrows 
which were made at the time of setting the plants. If double rows 
are used, as soon as the crop has a good start this furrow will be 
completely hid by the tops of the plants, but the water will still fol¬ 
low the ditches in good shape if they have been kept clean of weeds. 
Since the ditch at this time is shaded by the plants, the soil dries 
out less rapidly and does not bake so badly. 
Blanching. —Blanching consists in so excluding the light 
that tender stalks free from coloring matter may be obtained. Self¬ 
blanching varieties for the early market are blanched entirely with 
boards. The banking of celery high with earth during the hot 
summer days sometimes hurts the crop. Blanching with boards 
keeps the celery cleaner, but is quite expensive, owing to the great 
cost of lumber, so it is generally practiced only for a part of the 
early crop. Boards twelve or fourteen inches wide by any con¬ 
venient length, usually sixteen feet, are used. It takes about twenty 
thousand feet of lumber to blanch an acre at one time, but since 
during the warm part of the year the blanching will be completed 
in about three weeks, the boards may be used to blanch a second lot. 
If the boards are carefully piled each year so they will not warp and 
