Page:The family kitchen gardener - containing plain and accurate descriptions of all the different species and varieties of culinary vegetables (IA familykitchengar56buis).pdf/50

 rusty, greenish-white—which, of course, will be pronounced an inferior sort, and the blame attached to the seed.

.—To procure early Celery, the seed should be sown on a gentle hot-bed, from the first to the middle of March Collect a load or two of warm horse-manure. Put it in a form eighteen inches thick, to be covered with a frame and glass sash. When the violent heat has subsided, cover it with six inches of light soil, whereon sow your seed. Press it down, and rake it lightly, giving a gentle watering. Put on the glasses; shade from severe sun; give a little air from 11 to 2 o’clock; and as soon as the plants are up, air freely. Thin them out to half an inch apart. When they are three inches high, plant them out into a well-prepared bed of rich, light soil, which will be from the first to the middle of April—cover at night with mats or boards, to protect from cold or frost. By the first of June, they will be sufficiently strong to plant out in trenches for blanching. However, where extreme earliness is not an object, sow the seed about the first of April, on a rich, dry, warm border; when up, thin them out. About the middle of May, transplant them, three or four inches apart, into another piece of ground, to stock and harden, till they are finally planted into the rows for permanent culture.

The regular way is to select a level and rich piece of ground; dig the trenches a foot wide, ten inches deep, and three feet from each other; if convenient, from north to south, though any other aspect will do. Let the earth be regularly thrown out on each side of the trench, and sloped off. Five or six inches of well decomposed manure should then be worked full half-spade deep into the bottom of each trench. The plants which were transplanted into the beds or frame should be carefully lifted, and prepared for planting, which is done by cutting off the extremity of the roots; shortening their tops or leaves, but not so low as to injure the young centre leaves; and divesting the neck of the plant from suckers. This done