The Garden.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 434, 4 January 1890, Page 5

The Garden.

(Bv HORTIS.)

Celery. The celery plant is one of the most important vegetables which can be grown. It is not only conspicuously used for salad and for flavouring, etc., but is believed by many to possess medicinal properties. To be able to grow ce T erv well the very best of cultivation is required, and in our climate it can be obtained for use all the year round if judicious sowing and planting out takes place. If possible the young plants, when moving from the bed they have been pricked out into, should never receive a tovere check. Before lifting the plants the bed should receive a thorough drenching with water. After the water has settled, each plant should bo lifted carefully with a trowel, taking care to leave a good ball of earth attached to the roots of each plant. The trenches to receive the plants should be made at least a week before they are wanted for planting out, so that the soil and manure may get well sweetened. The way I would prefer to grow celery would be in trenches of two rows of plants in each row, as with two row 3 the earthing up can just as easily be managed as with one. A trench to contain two rows should bedugtoadepth of abouteighteeninches and about twenty inches broad. Into the bottom ot this trench, about six inches of good rich soil with a liberal admixture of well-rotted manure should be placed. The soil taken out of the trench .should be placed in a sloping position on each side of the trench. After the soil and manure have been placed in the trench, it should bo well watered and allowed to He and sweeten for about a week. Then the young plants may be planted out in two rows about ten inches apart, and the plants about six inches apart in row. Immediately after planting they should be well watered. Where large quantities of celery are required and space is an object, the trenches can bo made four and a-half feet wide with about the same depth, and the same treatment as to soil and manure as already described. Into this trench four rows may be planted, planting the rows about twelve inches apart and the plants six inches apart in row. The rows in this case can be planted across the trench. Water mustbe given to each row as the young plants are planted out. In a trench of this description, if long, it need not all bo planted at once, but the planting can be done in succession, so as to have successional crops in one trench. While the plants are growing they should be liberally treated as to watering. The soil about the roots should always be kept in a comparatively damp state. Where the soil is allowed to get dry at times and then watered heavily the fibres of the plant arealmost sure to become tough and stringy. Where the soil has been heavily manured when the planting took place clean water will be sufficient to water with, as this will dissolve sufficient nutriment from the manure already placed in the ground. -Again, where the planting has taken place in poor hungry soil, liquid manure should be frequently used, so as to keep up a strong vigorous growth. The best liquid manure to’ use is either horse or cow droppings which have been placed in water for at least twenty-four hours. When the plants begin to grow and get established they should be earthed up. Often this earthing up is performed in a rough manner, largo clods of earth being placed up against the plant, and the outer leaves and stalk are bruised and broken. _ Now, all this should be avoided. The first earthing up sliouia te done with a small hand garden fork. The soil on the sides of the trench should bo broken up finely with this, and gently placed about the*stems of the plants. The soil should at first bo loft loosely about the plants so as to allow the heart of the p’ant room to expand. The next earthing up should take place when the plants have attained a height of about ten inches above the ground. Then each plant should be tied up, and the tie should be placed just below the foliage of the outer leaves. Do not tie or crush the stems closely together, still allow for expansion. After all the plants are tied, the earth on each side of the trench should be broken up finely with a spade or fork. The soil should then be carefully placed about the stems of the plants. Be careful not to press the soil too closely about the stems, and try and not allow any particles of the soil target into the heart of the plant. At this earthing up the earth should just be placed up to where the tie was made. Recollect that plenty of room must still be left for expansion, and for the innermost leaves to rise. The next earthing up can take place after the plants have attained a height of about another foot. The first operation will be to cut the old tie and again retie close underneath the foliage of leaves. After tying give a ing with water; then break up the soil finely as before. The earthing up this time should be done in a more thorough manner. The plant itself must now be partly closed in, and the earth carefully placed so high that only the very tops of the leaves are left visible, leaving bhe earth in a sloping position outwards from the plant, beating the sides of the ridge gently with the back of the spade, so that it may retain its position without unduly pressing on the plant, ■ the object now being simply to obtain a final growth of the centre loaves excluded from the light and air, but otherwise freo from restraint. The whole object of earthing up celery plants is to keep the parts most used excluded from the light. By doing so, instead of being green of stalk’, they become white and tender and more crisp and 5 juicy ; so the cultivator, to be able to grow first-class quality, must be very liberal in his treatment in using litter manure, - or, liquid, manure, and at the same time never allowing the plants to receive a check from start to finish. Celery, to obtainrib first-class,

should also be grown in a climate wheye the frost checks back foliage, but in our climate such a thing never/ happens ; stillj’good celery can be grown where a libei'al ; treatment is adopted, and our climate will also allow of its being , .in : , use all the year round. . A -iaoici';::.? ;•••:. Fruit for- Breakfast. The modern'breakfast.,is ,not the heavy 1 meal with which men of a generation ago began the day. It was once the fashion to lay in a heavy , supply; rwithin an hour_ or two after leaving , the bed. Yy hen the stomach rebelled during hot weather at ‘the amount of work jt was called upon to do so early in the day the man was wont to, regard himself as jilt and to resort to medidries. V , 'f‘ Then came the farinaceous cranks vvlio insisted that the stomach needed, a rasping . in the morning," So far, as., they claimed that health is more easily preserved on a diet more largely farinaceou.s than was then popular, they were,right, but,there is some doubt fait now that the gritty oatmeal and cracked, wheat'are so beneficial bsteey were ’ at one time supposed tb b& The agitation

resulted in the addition to summer bills of fare of “ dairy dishes,” a great improvement in a city like New York, where so many thousands are at the mercy of restaurants. There is a tendency now to substitute fruit for farinaceeus food for breakfast, or to eat them together. During this season there is nothing that better prepares the system for the fatigues of the day than a matutinal meal of fresh fruit or sliced tomatoes, or a salad with good bread or coffee. The eater arises from such a breakfast with a feeling of lightness and comfoit ho can derive from no other meal. The food is easily digested and contains a minimum of heating elements. Morning is the proper time for eating fruit. Those restaurants are becoming favourite resorts with the intelligence that provides fruit for breakfast. Fruit is so cheap and plentiful in New York that there is no excuse for a stinted indulgence in it. The fruit habit is growing, and the cooling, health-preserving food is seen on more breakfast tables than ever before.— ‘ ‘ Telegram. ”