CRISP CELERY FROM JULY TILL SPRING 
F. C. GAYLORD 
Producing 150 Bunches in a Single 40 ft. Row in the Home Garden 
E CELERY is easily grown and lends itself well to the small 
yj home garden as it stands close planting and an abun- 
% dance can be grown upon a very small space. During 
Is the past summer, a single 40-foot row produced 150 
crisp, juicy, white bunches. By repeated plantings from early 
to late this crop amply responds to care, lasting from July until 
spring time, a pleasant, continual reminder of the joy of the 
garden season. 
Success with Celery requires rich loose soil and plenty of water. 
These requirements do not need to handicap any real gardener 
as any soil can be made Celery soil. This is best accomplished 
by adding well-rotted stable manure at the rate of a two-horse 
load to each hundred square feet of garden space. Don’t be 
afraid of getting the soil too rich. Apply the manure any time 
during the winter but work it into the top ten inches of earth in 
the early spring. 
For the earliest Celery start the plants in a hotbed or green¬ 
house. This is best done by tilling a flat or shallow box first 
full of coarse dirt and then sifting on top an inch of leaf-mold or 
woods’ dirt. Sow seed thinly over this, cover lightly, and place 
in a warm, lighted place. Water thoroughly and put a news¬ 
paper over the top of the flat or box until the seeds begin to 
germinate, when it is removed. For the very earliest crop the 
Celery may be grown on under glass in a hotbed or coldframe, 
transplanting the seedlings six inches apart each way. When 
the weather warms the glass is removed. 
Celery plants for the mid-summer crop are best started in the 
flats and then transplanted in May into heavily manured and 
fertilized soil; set four inches apart in the rows, and in the home 
garden for hand cultivation the rows need be only a foot apart. 
The setting out is best done in the evening and the plants then 
given a thorough watering. During the summer after the plants 
are six to ten inches high a top dressing of manure will help keep 
them growing rapidly. Thorough watering at regular intervals 
is essential to success. As the bunches become edible in size, 
blanch by placing boards along the sides of the rows or by using 
regular bleaching paper. Where plants are placed six inches 
apart or in a hotbed or coldframe, blanching will automatically 
take care of itself. 
For the late crop seed is sown in rich loose soil outside about 
the last of May. This is transplanted into permanent rows 
when the seedlings are about two to three inches high. The 
late crop usually is not blanched in the bed but placed in trenches 
or dug up, roots attached, and packed closely in a box in which 
soil has previously been placed. Care must be taken to pack 
soil around the roots and pack bunches in close. After the box 
is filled, stand it in a cool, dark place and water the roots fre¬ 
quently. Celery thus can be kept growing and blanching all 
winter. 
For the early and mid-summer crops, Golden Self-blanching or 
Easy-blanching is best, while one of the larger kinds such as 
Giant Pascal gives immense bunches of excellent quality for 
winter use. The simple secret to success then in the Celery 
patch is good seed, rich soil, and thorough watering. With 
attention to these three items and good culture any gardener 
may grow Celery worthy of an expert. 
PRUNINGS FROM THE NEW YORK STATE EXPERIMENT STATION 
Hints for the Amateur Fruit Grower on How to Increase His Yield 
Careful pruning pays. With trees which are well selected when the 
orchard is put out it is necessary to remove only occasional branches 
which start out in the wrong place and to remove dead, injured, and 
crossed limbs. 
If the trees are bearing small fruits, if the tops contain many dead 
branches, or if the seasonal growth is short and scant, judicious pruning 
is recommended as a means of rejuvenation. That usually consists of 
cutting back many branches and in entirely removing others. The fol¬ 
lowing general rules are applicable under such conditions: “Prune 
weak-growing varieties heavily; strong-growing kinds lightly. Varie¬ 
ties which branch freely need little pruning; those with many un¬ 
branched limbs, much pruning. Prune trees in rich, deep soils lightly; 
in poor, shallow soils heavily. Cutting back all the branches of a tree is 
practiced regularly only with Peaches and some Plums because with 
these fruits the wood of the past season, and therefore the crop, is borne 
progressively further away from the trunk. It is necessary to head-in 
these fruits by cutting back the branches to keep the bearing wood 
near the trunk. On the other hand, Apples, Pears, Cherries, and most 
Plums bear on spurs from wood two or more years old and with these 
heading-in is not so desirable. Winter pruning has no special ad¬ 
vantage over summer pruning, except that the pressure of other work 
is less during the winter months. 
Plums. Very little difference was noted in the behavior of heavily 
pruned trees and those receiving much less pruning in tests conducted 
over a number of years with several standard varieties of Plums on the 
grounds of the Station at Geneva. In the opinion of the Station hor¬ 
ticulturists most varieties require but little pruning subsequent to the 
proper shaping of the trees after they are planted. Since little pruning 
gives just as good if not better trees, it is a waste of time and effort to 
pay much attention to pruning Plums. The chief recommendation is 
to thin out thick growths where necessary and to remove broken or 
injured branches. 
Ten varieties of Plums were used in the tests, including Abundance, 
Bradshaw, DeSoto, Grand Duke, Wayland, Pottawattamie, Reine 
Claude, Shropshire, and Italian Prune. Practically the only difference 
between the trees subjected to the two styles of pruning was that the 
little-pruned trees had larger and broader, more symmetrical heads. 
The increased size in no way retarded the maturity of the fruit or im¬ 
peded harvesting. The size of the trunks and branches of the two lots 
of trees were practically the same, and there was very little difference 
in the height of the trees. 
Pears. How to prune Pears to the best advantage has occupied the 
attention of the Station horticulturists for several years. The merits of 
high- and low-headed trees have been compared. Low-headed trees 
receiving little pruning have proved most satisfactory in all respects. 
Experiments have been conducted with such well-known varieties as 
Anjou, Bartlett, Kieffer, Sheldon, Seckel, and Lawrence to studv the 
relative value of high and low heading. Certain of these varieties have 
also been used in tests of much and little pruning for Pears. It would 
seem that low heads were best for all varieties of Pears, especially for 
the tall, upright-growing types. Low-headed trees produced larger, 
broader, and rather more symmetrical tops than the high-headed ones. 
This would be particularly advantageous for unwieldy varieties of 
the Kieffer type. Little pruning seems to produce rather more 
symmetrical tops, as well as larger bearing areas. Heavy pruning 
appears to stimulate a greater wood growth which results in rather 
bushy growth or sometimes unwieldy branches and relatively smaller 
bearing areas. 
37 
