Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1895-04-25
Growing Celery in North Dakota

&u reply 10 your request Tor an article
On celery growing, ! will say that
writing newspaper articles is not in
any line, but will do the best can TO
explain my method of culture.
have been quite successful in grow
ing celery here, and am willing your
leaders shall have the benefit of my
experience.
We will begin at the beginning,
which is the sowing of the seed. For
this we use flats shallow boXes) l2x24
inches and inches deep Sift the box
fun of good rich garden soil. With a
Straight edge scrape so as to leave the
box level full. Sow the seed broadcast
ten thousand plants in the size of boxes
named Now with smooth piece of
board gently press the seed into the
soil, at the same time pressing the soil
down about q inch below the top of the
box. Now. with fine sieve sift on
enough good sharp sand to fill the box
use your straight edge again and you
have your seed all covered exactly
alike. Now press the sand down firm
lv: water very carefully but thorough
ly with syringe or sprinkler, with
tine hose, so as to not wash the seed
ant from under the sand. Set away
where the temperature can be kept at
80 degrees at night, and from ITO as
degrees in the day time, according to
whether the sun shines or not Ia green
house or hotbcd is the best place. cover
with paper to keep from drying out too
rapidly.
Keep the sand always moist, as the
Il nj 70.
will be up in about two weeks.
Now the object of covering the seed
with sand will be apparent; if dirt was
used it would form crust over the
seed, and as soon as the seed germin-
ated it would raise the crust up, and it
would be almost impossible to get the
little plants out from underit But the
sand will not crust to any extent, and
the first watering will settle it down,
leaving the little plants on top. Now
give the plants plenty of water. sun
and air, and in about two weeks they
arc ready to transplant. This is done
by filling the same sized boxes loosely
with dirt and putting about 400 plants
III each box. using a small wooded 'dib'
and placing the plant in the dirt clear
To the seed leaves. When the box is
full jar it gently, which, if the soil is in
the right condition, will fill the holes
made by the "dib," and settle the soil
nicely around the plants. Water thor
s,ughly, shade for day or two, and
10 65 degrees AS soon as they begin
to crowd each other shear them back.
This gives better roots and makes them
more stocky.
In about six weeks from the time of
transp!anting the plants are ready to
go in the field Before planting out
they should be 'thardened off, by ex-
posure to the outdoorair and by giving
chem less water. We do this by re-
moving the sash on pleasant days and
gradually leaving it off altogether.
The ground should be well prepared
by deep plowing-should be well har-
rowed and plankcd so as to be per-
fectly free from Jumps. roots or trash
of any description. Now our method
is to stretch lines eight feet apart the
length of the field. Get good sharp
boy to drop plants for each man; pull
the plants: take what can be reached
around nicely with the hand and dip
the roots in a bucket of water; cut off
the roots, leaving them about 3 inches
than two or three inches long; keep
the roots moist until they are in the
ground. The planter gets down on his
knees by the side or astride of the line,
and with a steel pointed dibber make
u hole for the plant; put in the plant.
taking pains to get the roots down full
length: now place the point of the 'dib'
about two inches from the plant and
run it straight to The roots of the plant.
Il little practice will enable one to do
this SO that the plant will be fastened
SO securely that the leaves may be pull
ed off and the plant not come up. If it
will do this the plant is properly plant
ed and unless very dry weather fol-
lows. there is little danger of its not
living. A good man will set from eight
to ten thousand plants day. and hard
ly a plant fail to grow, if the ground is
in good condition.
said we made our rows eight feet
apart. This is for the
EARLY CELERY
which we plant as soon as danger of
freezing is over, using white plume,
pntting the plants about inches apart
in the row. Our late celery we plant
between these rows, thus leaving the
rows four feet apart The object of
planting in this way will appear fur
thcr on. After the field is planted and
as soon us the plants have caught on ,
we begin to cultivate. using Planet, Jr.,
eouble-whcel hoes After the plants
get to growing little, we start the
horses, using Planet, DR., horse hoes.
with sweeps instead of the ordinary
:,hovels. These are kept sharp and are
sure death to any weed that shows it
self. In fact, we don't intend they shall
show themselves, but kill them before
they areup. AS soon as the plants are
large enough SO they will not get COW
cred up, the cultivating is all done
with horses.
AS soon as the first celery planted is
4. foot high we begin to bank up for ear
ly market, using Planet, Jr., single
carthers.
A great deal of judgement has. to be
exercised now as celery rusts very
quicklyi if banked too long in hot wealth
s.r. SO it must not be .rowed any faster
than it is expected to be used. Our
way is to bank up bank or two every
A.