July 8. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
It is common to refer the parentage of the varieties 
now in cultivation to a strong-smelling umbelliferous 
plant, growing wild in our salt marshes; he this as it 
may, we may say that the strong smell of this wild 
plant (agreeable or otherwise) is much modified in its 
progeny. This is, we believe, in accordance with one of 
those laws to which there are few exceptions, and cer¬ 
tainly the cultivation, which enhances the beauty of any 
| one plant, is generally at the sacrifice of some other of 
! its qualities—witness the carnation—the parents of 
which are said to be found wild in several places in 
I England; and yet the fancy kind of the enthusiastic 
j florist have so far lost their native hardihood as to be 
| unable to endure the winter in sheltered gardens, in 
; districts not many miles from where their parents have 
been able, through many ages, to maintain a successful 
struggle with herbage of a coarse and robust character. 
So much for constitution being sacrificed to improve¬ 
ment ; but then the advantages we gain are tenfold 
to those we lose, and, to a certain extent, we compel 
the “well-bred” progeny to obey our commands; 
whether it be a carnation for a flower show, or a head 
of celery for the salad bowl, both are alike the produce 
of well-directed skill, by which some of the faults or 
propensities of the original have been overcome. In 
celery, the inclination to run to seed the season it is 
sown has certainly been combatted with success, ex¬ 
cept that now and then a spurious specimen runs 
away; but in most other cases, it may, with proper cul¬ 
tivation, be depended on as not likely to run until early 
the next spring, and the object of cultivators is to retard 
that as much as possible, both in the selection of kinds 
planted, and the way in which it is managed. On this 
latter we beg to offer a few remarks. 
It is well known that the ground producing the best 
celery is not always the most suitable for keeping it in 
good order to the latest period at which celery is 
capable of keeping; that degree of richness in the 
ground, so essential to robust growth, is at variance with 
the preservative principle. Slugs and worms of every 
description prey on it with impunity, so that very early 
in the winter the once-beautiful-heads are a mass of dis¬ 
figured objects, perhaps not one in ten fit to send to 
table; this is almost certain to be more the case in a 
mild winter than in a severe one; so that for the welfare 
of the last crop other means must be adopted than those 
deemed advisable for the “ first or principal one.” We 
shall, however, begin with the main crop, which includes 
all intended for use from early autumn to pastmid-winter; 
in other words, from the beginning of October until the 
end of February, which embraces the period when its 
uses and quality is supposed to be greater than before or 
after. 
Omitting everything relative to its being sown early 
in spring, as due notice was made at the time, we shall 
suppose the young seedlings to be progressing, and to 
have arrived to the size at which they can be handled with 
comfort. Every one who has had any experience that 
| way can tell when such plants are fit to prick out, and 
it is often a matter of anxiety that the weather is not 
always favourable at the precise time, as the jffants are 
generally sown so thick on the seed-bed as to draw eacli 
' other if left unthinned for any length of time. The 
cultivator must, in this case, exercise his own judgment 
j as regards the probability of there being rain in a day 
or two after his plants are the proper size; in the mean¬ 
time, he must prepare his nursery bed or ground, which 
ought to be in some fully-exposed situation, and if not 
already rich, it ought to be made so with a liberal 
allowance of well-rotted dung, or leaves in the last stage 
of decomposition. Should, however, the weather appear 
to he settled dry, it would be better to plant or prick out 
a quantity at once, rather than allow them to become 
I drawn and spindling on the seed bed, and have recourse 
2ffl 
to shading as a means of saving them from the scorch¬ 
ing effects of summer’s sunshine. A few pea stakes laid ! 
over them answers very well, with mats occasionally in 
the middle of the day; this, of course, may be dispensed 
with gradually as the plants take hold, and probably the 
weather may become more dull. In a usual way, young 
celery plants grow pretty freely, and the loss in any 
given piece is really less than in most other things 
similarly treated. If all go on well they will make very 
good progress after the first week or ten days, and will ; 
soon be large enough to occupy the trenches or places ! 
allotted to their after, or principal growth. This brings ; 
us to that important feature in celery growing—the 
formation of the trenches, about which much has been 
said of late years. 
Previous to the last twenty" or twenty-five years celery 
was invariably grown in single rows, planted in trenches, 
or rather ditches, more or less deep. The utility of a 
deep ditch is that it affords a greater amount of soil 
wherewith to earth up the crop the required height. 
Some one, however, found out that the soil at the bottom 
of this ditch was not so good as that nearer the top or 
surface of the ground, and loudly exclaimed against 
consigning a vegetable requiring such nourishing diet 
to the questionable capabilities of the ordinary subsoil 
of the garden when grown, and, consequently, advised its 
beiug planted on the surface, or with little excavation. 
This, no doubt, was attended with a more speedy growth 
at first, and even throughout; but then, some other mode 
in place of the old one must be adopted to retain the 
earth heaped against it in its position, so as to insure its 
blanching, and, consequently, straw bands, moss, litter, 
wooden boxes, and earthenware tubes or pipes were all 
used in turn, with more or less success, but the result 
proved these means to have been, in most cases, too ex¬ 
pensive, improper, or unsuitable, as they never got into 
general use, and plain earth was after all found the 
cheapest and best for all ordinary purposes, and means 
were accordingly taken to improve the soil in which it 
was planted, by deepening the trench or ditch, so as to 
allow of a good quantity of suitable soil being thrown 
in, enriched also by a liberal allowance of well-rotted 
dung ; assisted afterwards by what was of not less con¬ 
sequence, the application of liquid manure. This system 
is, we believe, the one most generally adopted in the 
growth of the great bulk of Celery offered for sale in the 
London market, as well as that grown in private gardens; 
but another mode has been adopted by some, which we 
will give in another week, as well as some notices of the 
time and manner of earthing it up, and other matters 
connected with its keeping. J. Robson. 
PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE 
MANAGEMENT OF BEES. 
By Henry Wenman Neivman, Esy. 
( Concluded from page 201.) 
THE QUEEN BEE. 
The queen bee is different in many particulars from her 
subjects. She is not so vindictive as the workers. How 
the Divine Wisdom has wisely ordered this is evident, for 
if the (preen was as vindictive as her subjects, she would be 
in danger of her life every time she was rudely disturbed. 
I have had many live queens in my hand. In hiving a swarm 
in one of the straw hives (a second swarm), they fixed in a 
most awkward place, the but of a plum-tree. I endeavoured, 
in vain for some time, to get the bees to ascend, hut, at 
last, observing the queen, I seized her, and gently placed 
her inside the bottom part of the hive; she ascended in¬ 
stantly, and the whole of the bees, in about three minutes, 
followed her; I then allowed them to work until the evening, 
when I removed the hive to its destination. 
The queen’s wings are.much shorter than those of the 
workers, and many swarms are yearly lost in consequence 
