Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 November 1887 — KEEPING CELERY. [ARTICLE]

KEEPING CELERY.

A Summarized Plan Furnished by an Experienced Farmer. Ohio Farmer. J His first move before * making, th© trench forth© plants to plo w the soil in lands three or four yards wide, leaving a dead furrow in the center. “We plow,” he says, “at least three times, sticking the plow in the second or third time almost up to the beam. This repeated plowing leaws a mass of fine, loose, mellow soil on each .side of the trench, At the bottom of this dead furrow dig out a trench a foot or fifteen inches wide, and set in the celery plants ag ih the former case,. We draw the celery plants on stone-boats to the trenches. And in taking them up we leave considerable soil adhering to the roots. Do not bruise the celery, and if any of the leases are touched with frost cut off the parts affected. It is much easier to keep out decay than to stop it after it hasstarteu. With an abundance of loose,fine earth all around the trench, nothing is easier than to place the plants nicely and properly in the trench with a little earth between. In fact, it will be easier to put in the earth than to keep itout, asit is necessary to draw the earth plowed ont back to the trench, and more or less of it will get in between the plants. This is just what you want, but you must avoid letting the earth get between the stalks of the plants, as it is much trouble to wash it when preparing the celery for the table. Cover the trench with boards as before mentioned. Cover the boards a foot thick with straw, and throw earth upon it from the sides of tbe trench. We ' do not usually finish the work at once. If the weather is warm there may be danger of the celery heating in the trench- This must be specially guarded against. This is why we like to have earth between the plants. Instead of throwing on all the earth on the top and sides of the trench at once, we prefer to wait until aboat the Ist of December, or jußt before very severe frost sets in. The plants are sufficiently protected to keep out rain, and to prevent injury from one night’s frost, however sudden and severe it may be. Then the soil on each side of the trench is so loose and porous that we can plow it or spade it easily, while unbroken soil is frozen solid. At this final covering up for the winter, put on another layer of straw and cover it up thoroughly witjt earth, and that is all there is to do. It will form a ridge high enough to shed rain, and of course you will see that there is no danger of water soaking into the celery trench from th 9 surface. When celery is kept in this way tn a trench, Bpaded out of firm, unplowed earth, it will be necessary to take a little more pains to keep out fro St. The danger is not so much from the top as from the sides of the treach, where- the earth is unbroken. A covering, of leaves, or pine needles, or chaff, or

straw, for a yard or more on each side of the trench, and a foot thick, wilF make you entirely safe. It will be well te cover with fine earth.' “Celery will keep just as well in a cool cellar as in a trench, provided that it is treated precisely as though it was in a trench. The roots must be in contact with moist earth, and there must be earth enough around the plants to prevent too much evaporation. Draw a cart-load or more of fine, clean, sandy soil into the cellar. Place a board, a foot or more wide, edgewise on the cellar floor, parallel to the cellar wall, and from eighteen inches to two feet from it. Make it firm in any way most convenient. In this box or trench set up the celery. Pack the earth around the roots and between the plants—the higher up the better. If you have only a few heads to keep in the cellar at a time, they may be set in a box, eighteen inches or two feet deep, treated precisely in the same way as above. If the soil at the bottom of the box gets dry, it must be watered. A good plan would! be to set the box in water an inch’or two deep, but this not always convenient. Another plan is t-& make a hole down through the celery inside the box, say at the comer, and pour a few quarts of water, or until the soil around the roots is saturated. Celery that is partially blanched will keep together longer than if already blanched sufficiently for the table. Good, Bound, vigorous plants, that are growing when taken up, will blanch to some extent in the cellar or trench. But for this to take place it is necessary for the roots to have moist soil around them.”