All garden or field crops are divided into two classes, those whose seeds are sown where the crop is to grow; and those whose seeds must be planted in special conditions, such as seed-beds, hot-beds or forcing houses. Celery is always a seed-bed crop, and occasionally a hot-bed or forcing-house crop, according to the time when the grower wishes it to mature. It requires a cool, rich, very moist soil, in excellent tilth, where surface tillage is maintained throughout the whole season. Although good celery may be grown on uplands by means of extra care and attention, it usually grows best in rich, moist, bottom lands. Reclaimed marshes, whose soil has been pulverized and fertilized, are ideal celery plots, because there the moisture is sufficient even during the heat of summer. Celery cannot stand exposure to the direct heat of the sun, and on exposed places many growers find it necessary to shade the crop. Celery seeds are very small and slow to sprout and are sown broadcast or in rows. If in rows the sowing is very shallow. The seedlings are tender and delicate, so that it is only in a well-prepared seed-bed that the plants can be satisfactorily raised. The site of the bed should be selected with great care, so as to protect it from hot or dry winds, and to make it convenient to water it every evening. Celery requires a great deal of moisture. The soil must be in such excellent tilth that it will hold moisture up to the very surface without the help of a mulch. Some growers do use a mulch in growing celery, but it makes the delicate seedlings so much more delicate that the loss from sun-scald upon transplanting is likely to be heavy. If you do use a covering of any sort, be careful to begin to remove it as soon as the plants begin to grow, and take it all off before they are up enough to be transplanted. But if you make your seed-bed carefully, you will not need a covering for it. Even when you have taken so much pains to start your celery crop, the work is by no means done. To secure good, strong, stocky plants, they should be transplanted once or twice in the seed-bed before the final transplanting to the garden. It is essential in North Carolina, says Prof. Massey, to transplant celery once before setting in field or garden. This entails so much labor, that many growers are now using the thinning process in place of these various transplantings, and even in the seed-bed the young plants are thinned to stand two to three inches apart and the tops are sheared if they grow tall too soon. The plants may be safely cut back a third or even a half of their growth. In small garden plots, shears or a sickle may be used, but, in the large fields, growers generally use a scythe.