Page:How and what to grow in a kitchen garden of one acre (IA howwhattogrowin00darl).pdf/81

 shady corner for the seed; if such situation is not to be had, the seed can be sown in a spent hotbed, cold frame or other convenient place, and can be artificially shaded with fresh brush or lath shades through the hottest part of the day. Celery is naturally a swamp plant, and to make a rapid growth should have the ground as rich as possible, and also as much water as possible, without making the ground heavy and sour. The soil should not be allowed to become dry or baked, and the weeds should be pulled out as soon as they appear. This bed, and, indeed, all other seed beds, should be made very rich with well-rotted manure; not with horse-stable manure or phosphate, as both of them are dry and heating, and in dry weather would stunt or entirely burn up the young plants. The seed should be sown in drills about six inches apart, to admit of working the soil with a narrow hoe, as the continued watering will harden the surface of the bed and check the growth of the young plants. When the plants are well up they should be thinned out so as to stand an inch apart in the drills, and if the plants are ready some little time before they are wanted for setting out, they can be made more stocky and stronger by shearing off about half of the tops.

When ready to set out, I run a double furrow where the row is to be—that is, the plow is run both ways in the same furrow, casting up a ridge of dirt on either side of a shallow trench; then in the bottom of this trench fine compost or well-rotted manure is placed to the depth of one to two inches, and some of the fine soil from the sides is drawn down over