soil should be reserved for celery, since it can be set out from the first to the twentieth of July in our latitude; it can be grown as the most valuable of the second crops, reoccupying space made vacant by early crops.  I find it much easier to buy my plants, when ready for them, than to raise them.  In every town there are those who grow them in very large quantities, and, if properly packed, quickly transported, and promptly set out in the evening following their reception, and watered abundantly, they rarely fail.

There are decided advantages, however, in raising our own plants, especially if midsummer should prove dry and hot, or the plants must be long in transit.  When they are growing in our own garden, they can be moved with very slight check to their growth.  In starting the seed there is no necessity for hot-bed or cold-frame.  It may be put in the ground the first week of April, and the best plants are thus secured.  Much is gained by preparing a warm but not dry plot of ground in autumn, making it very rich with short, half-decayed stable-manure.  This preparation should be begun as soon as possible after the soaking September rains.  Having thoroughly incorporated and mixed evenly in the soil an abundance of the manure described, leave the ground untouched for three weeks.  The warm fertilizer will cause great numbers of weed-seeds to germinate.  When these thrifty pests are a few inches high, dig them under and bring up the bottom soil.  The warmth and light will immediately start a new and vigorous growth of weeds, which in turn should be dug under.  If the celery seed bed be made early enough, this process can be repeated several times before winter—­ the oftener the better; for by it the great majority of weed-seeds will be made to germinate, and thus are destroyed.  The ground also becomes exceedingly rich, mellow, and fine—­an essential condition for celery seed, which is very small, and germinates slowly.  This thorough preparation does not involve much labor, for the seed-bed is small, and nothing more is required in spring but to rake the ground smooth and fine as soon as the frost is out.  The soil has already been made mellow, and certainly nothing is gained by turning up the cold earth in the bottom of the bed.  Sow the seed at once on the sunwarmed surface.  The rows should be nine inches apart, and about twelve seeds sown to every inch of row.  The drills should be scarcely an eighth of an inch deep.  Indeed, a firm patting with the back of a spade would give covering enough.  Since celery germinates so slowly, it is well to drop a lettuce-seed every few inches, to indicate clearly just where the rows are.  Then the ground between the rows can be hoed lightly as soon as the weeds start, also after heavy rains, so as to admit the vivifying sun-rays and air.  Of course when the celery plants are clearly outlined, the lettuce should be pulled out.