56 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



doors to give us plants later in the season. This sowing comes from the 

 first to the middle of April. The first plants from the hot-bed we com- 

 mence to set about the tenth of May; the out-door plants, when they are 

 ready, some time the fore part of June. We prepare our land as you 

 would for any ordinary crop, spreading from forty to fifty one-horse loads 

 of manure to the acre (the bigger the loads the better). Then we drag 

 and " plank " the land, then mark it out in rows five feet apart, setting the 

 plants in the rows from four to six inches apart. After we are through 

 setting, we take good care of the land, keeping it perfectly clear from 

 weeds, and when the celery is about one-third grown (that is, the first 

 crop) we commence to set the second crop in between the rows of the 

 first. When the first crop is large enough, some time the latter part of 

 June, we commence to set the boards against it for the purpose of blanch- 

 ing, one on each side, clamping them at the top edge. Then with a hoe 

 draw the earth close up to the lower edge to keep the air from passing up, 

 as this would prevent the celery from blanching. It takes from two to 

 three weeks to blanch the celery with boards, so by the fourth of July, if 

 the weather has been favorable, we can have some ready for market. 



We calculate to be all through setting plants by the first of August. 

 The writer would say that he has seen better results when the setting 

 out stopped the middle of July. Sometimes we set out a third crop in 

 between the second. When the land is all clear of the first crop we com- 

 mence to blanch with earth, say about the first of October, and get all 

 through by the middle. From the time the first plant is set in May, until 

 the last plant is gone in January, is about as hurrying times as a body 

 needs to pass through. At least this has been my experience. 



One thing that has puzzled us is the keeping of celery through the 

 winter till spring, and it not only troubles us, but others all over the 

 country. One gentleman wrote me from Dakota asking our best method 

 for keeping even for a little while into winter, and I gave him our method, 

 but it would not work there, as the temperature would be like spring one 

 day and twenty degrees below zero the next, making it necessary to 

 cover deep enough for one of our steady-going winters one day and 

 uncover the next for a June day. So, you see, nothing but eternal vigi- 

 lance and hard work would give that man celery. The best method we 

 have found is to make a narrow trench, say one foot wide, and set the 

 celery up as straight as possible, drawing the earth up carefully on each 

 side and covering as the severity of the weather requires. Some claim 

 better results from burying in the sand, others think that they have better 

 success on the marsh. Surely it is a big undertaking, for a man who has 

 forty acres, to hunt up a sand bank in which to secure his crop. Other 

 points of interest might be taken up and discussed, such as the best kinds 

 of celery, the best kind of machinery in the shape of plows, cultivators, 

 machines for hilling up, digger for taking the stalks from the earth, etc. 



To a question Mr. Wilson answered that early sown celery was not 

 more subject to hollow stalk than that sown later. 



Mr. Frank Little of Kalamazoo, read his paper which follows in full: 



Some five years ago, at the request of the commissioner of agriculture, 

 I prepared a paj)er describing in detail the method of celery culture at 

 Kalamazoo. This was published in full in the annual report of the 

 department for 1886. 



