58 STATE HORTICULTURAL. SOCIETY. 



cultivation within the city limits and suburbs is estimated at 1,200 acres, 

 furnishing employment in this special industry to upward of 2,000 laborers, 

 besides a great number of women and children. 



Notwithstanding this remarkable expansion and wonderful success 

 attending the growth of celery in Kalamazoo, notably so within the past 

 five years, the possibilities of the future have only been half realized. 

 While the annual acreage is raj)idly increasing, stimulated by a brisk, 

 profitable demand for shipment, large areas of land, probably 1,200 

 acres or more, suitable for the cultivation of the plant, are still 

 unoccupied. 



CULTUEAL METHODS. 



It is no genteel, light, clean work or child's play to grow celery. The 

 drainage and subjugation of the natural soil, fertilization, planting out, 

 and subsequent cultivation and gathering the crop, almost entirely hand 

 work from the commencement to the close, is laborious in the extreme. 



At first narrow open ditches are dug at right angles to the stream or 

 principal drain, at intervals varying from ten to thirty rods, as the case 

 may require. The intermediate spaces between the ditches is then 

 thoroughly dug up by hand, or by plowing in some instances, covering 

 underneath the wild coarse grass, weeds, flags, and rushes, preparatory to 

 setting the plants. 



Horses shod with broad wooden shoes made of two-inch plank are 

 sometimes used in plowing drier portions; also, sometimes, where too wet 

 and miry for a team, a capstan set on the upland, with a long cable 

 attached to a plow, is used, and a wooden tramway is laid for a light car to 

 take the plow and cable back to the starting point, and for the transportli- 

 tion of manure, boards, tools, plants, etc., upon the field; but this is not 

 the common practice now, as the marshes are drier than formerly. 



Most of the labor in the celery gardens is done by Hollanders — men, 

 women, and children — who, in wooden shoes, bid defiance to malaria and 

 diphtheria, and seem to be perfectly at home as they dig in the mud and 

 water and plow over the moist celery fields. 



In winter, when the marshes are frozen, large quantities of straw and 

 stable manure are drawn out to the celery fields, for spring and summer 

 use. Manure, which has appreciated in value largely within the city 

 limits since the development of this enterprise, is an essential feature of 

 success. It is used liberally at each successive planting to promote the 

 growth of the crop; and it is found that artificial fertilization here can not 

 be profitably dispensed with. 



Celery seed is quite small and slow to germinate. Some growers raise 

 their own seed, but a large number purchase it each year at a reliable seed 

 agency. 



There are many varieties, with scarcely essential differences. The most 

 popular named varieties at Kalamazoo are the Golden Dwarf, White Plume, 

 and White Walnut. 



Seed is sown in March in hot-beds; later on, in shallow boxes, and a 

 finely prepared seed-bed outdoors. The seed should be sown in straight 

 rows, so that the young plants may be kept free from weeds. When about 

 two inches high they should be thinned out and transplanted two inches 

 apart, and when four inches high the tops should be cut off, which will 

 cause them to grow stocky. 



