PROCEEDINGS OF THE WINTER MEETING. 61 



IN CONCLUSION. 



Kalamazoo celery takes high rank in the various markets where offered. 

 It is remarkably uniform in size and quality ; of luxuriant, rapid growth ; 

 crisp, aromatic, nutty flavor; and is generally sound and free from rust. 

 Large, thrifty heads are generally more salable, but a medium size is to be 

 preferred as being more tender and solid. As an esculent, it undoutedly 

 requires a cultivated taste to relish celery, but this taste is readily acquired ; 

 and as a condiment and appetizer, to say nothing of its valuable medicinal 

 properties, celery stands unsurpassed. 



The foregoing sketch of the rise and progress of celery culture in 

 Kalamazoo but imperfectly delineates the development of an industry that 

 has proved of great practical value not only to this locality, but, the 

 success and fame of the undertaking having gone abroad, elsewhere in 

 this state and in other states, the more extensive cultivation of celery has 

 been stimulated in view of what has been accomplished here. 



Land, much of it heretofore considered comparatively worthless, the 

 original home of venomous reptiles, noxious weeds, swamp fever, and 

 malaria, has been drained, brought under cultivation, converted into arable 

 fields and luxuriant celery gardens. 



While some of the drier portions of the Kalamazoo marshes were avail- 

 able for pasturage and meadows in dry seasons, yielding a coarse marsh 

 grass of inferior quality, many large tracts that have been reclaimed were 

 but a few years since wet and miry, almost impassable for either men or 

 animals, and the idea of converting these lands to any practical use in the 

 direction indicated would, a few years since, have been deemed visionary 

 and absurd in the highest degree. 



VAEIOUS EEMAEKS. 



Mr. Wilson spoke of the fact that while "coops" were, at the time Mr, 

 Little's paper was written, used for storage of celery, they were altogether 

 abandoned because of resulting heavy losses by heating and rotting. He 

 also said that celery blanched by earth instead of boards, in the summer, 

 was unpalatable because bitter. 



Prof. A. J. Cook: One point has not been touched as yet, the keeping 

 of celery for family use. I put earth on the cellar bottom and set the 

 celery upon it, in rows with boards between to prevent rotting, placing a 

 few tiles among it, into which to pour water to moisten the earth and keep 

 the celery fresh. It will not do to wet the stalks or leaves. It would 

 cause rot. 



Mr. Tracy: When do you sow the seed for early July celery? 



Mr. Wilson : From the first to the tenth of March. 



Mr. Little: To keep celery for domestic use, don't trim it much and 

 pack the roots i*i moist sand. 



Mr. Wilson: Soil impregnated with iron will cause rust. 



WHAT is in varieties? 



Mr. Tracy: A very good author once said that were a man blindfolded 

 and given several varieties of celery to eat he could not tell the difference 

 between them. But I tried the experiment with several persons and 

 found this author mistaken. There is a marked difference in flavor 



