60 STATE' HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



CABE IN COLD WEATHEK. 



As the season advances and freezing weather sets in, all the plants that 

 remain in the gardens are lifted from their original bed and stored care- 

 fully away in the winter cellars or "coops." These winter repositories 

 are built to exclude the frost, and have facilities for lighting and for heat- 

 ing in extreme cold weather. They are built usually 24 feet wide, and are 

 100, 200, or 300 feet long, as the case may require. 



In constructing these " coops," which are built on dry land near the 

 gardens, the earth is excavated about two feet below the natural surface 

 for the entire area to be inclosed. The sides are boarded up above the 

 natural surface two feet to the eaves, making side walls four feet high 

 inside. A ridge- j)ole, six feet high, is duly supported through the center, 

 and fourteen-foot boards are used for roofing, occasional openings being 

 made in the roof for windows and ventilation. The outside is well banked 

 up with earth to the eaves, and the roof covered with straw and manure to 

 exclude the frost. 



In housing the celery for winter, beginning at the back end of the 

 "coop," the plants which are green and small as they are selected from 

 the field are first packed away at the further end, standing closely and 

 upon their roots, slightly sprinkled with earth, and moistened to keep 

 them growing. To prevent heating, the plants, as they are stowed away, 

 are divided into narrow sections by boards set edgewise. Green and 

 immature plants are always placed at the back end, so as to be the last to 

 come out in the early spring, when the season closes, while the large, 

 mature heads are saved to go in last near the door. 



In this manner the "coop" is filled to the entrance with one or two 

 hundred thousand dozens of plants, more or less, as the case may be. 



The proper management of these winter cellars is a very important 

 feature of the enterprise, and requires constant vigilance and excellent 

 judgment to regulate the light, heat, ventilation, and steady successful 

 bleaching of the plants. 



Another method of winter storage is sometimes practiced by digging a 

 trench two feet deep, two feet wide, and any desired length. The plants 

 are then packed uprightly upon their roots in the trench as closely as they 

 will stand, and covered with straw, earth, and manure to exclude frost. 



While celery thus secured is said to be preferable, there are serious 

 objections to the method in this latitude. For the plants, long excluded 

 from the air, would smother and decay, there would be danger from frost, 

 and they would be inaccessible many winters in case of protracted periods 

 of very cold weather. 



The winter demand for celery for shipment, especially during the 

 holiday season, is constant and unabated; and the "coop" system enables 

 the grower to obtain access to his stock every day, even in the coldest 

 weather, and note its condition and prepare it for market, until the crop is 

 exhausted. 



Kalamazoo celery is now shipped to nearly every state in the Union. 

 The regular season commences about the first of July, and, being 

 prolonged by the practice of winter storage, lasts until the succeeding 

 March or April. 



The annual product of celery at Kalamazoo is now estimated at upward 

 of 1,200,000 dozens, and valued at $250,000. 



