100 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



gain much valuable time, for all that he eats has to be made up again 

 from the center. So we are losers from two causes, the weather and 

 insects. 



Now, how are we going to overcome these difficulties? One way * to 

 order up just such weather as we want. That would overcome the parch- 

 ing of the leaves, and leave us able to keep all that we have. The other 

 remedy is to keep the insect out. If these two points could be gained how 

 much it would be in our favor; and we must do this, as near as we can, or 

 we are lost, and Kalamazoo's good name in the market is gone and her 

 place is occupied by some one else less worthy; for what we have gained we 

 have worked hard, and we must keep it if we can. You may say in your 

 minds, what does all this talk amount to? and what would it amount to if 

 Kalamazoo should lose her standing? I will tell you what it amounts to. 

 It amounts to the loss of a million dollars to us, which is quite an item 

 toward running the inside of such a town as ours. Some one asked me if 

 it took much intelligence to raise celery. I thought it did, and I will say 

 right here that it will take more intelligence for the next ten years to raise 

 celery than it has in the past ten years. You ask why. Every farmer 

 knows that when he raises one crop in succession on a certain piece of 

 land, year after year, the land grows tired and needs rest or change of 

 crops. So it is with our celery lands. They begin to need rest or change 

 of crops. My experience has been that larger celery can be raised on new 

 land, if we give it the same amount of manure that we do the old land. 



That being the case, I think that we can renew our marshes by going a 

 little deeper every year and bringing to the surface some of the unused 

 soil below; for, if any of you have noticed on our marshes about Kalama- 

 zoo, the celery roots never try to enter the brown subsoil six or eight 

 inches below the surface. So I contend that if two or three inches of this 

 brown subsoil were brought to the surface every year, it would help the soil 

 in two ways. First it would give a new coat of earth on top, and by going 

 deeper every year we get more depth of soil that the celery roots will go 

 down for instead of spreading over so much surface. Celery is a very hungry 

 feeder. After the plant is set out, it is like a great many human beings 

 who have just started out in life. It commences to look around to see 

 what is best for itself, not going down but spreading over a great deal of 

 surface. I have seen the roots reach out three feet each way from the 

 plant. So if we could get those roots to go down they would have more 

 moisture to sustain the plant. Some one may ask, when do you bring this 

 brown subsoil to the top? I answer, that the fall is the only time that it 

 should be brought up. Then the frosts have a chance to work on this cold, 

 wet subsoil and convert it into plant food. According to this theory, it takes 

 one year before this soil is ready for use. I think it would do some of us 

 good if we would look away to some of the old countries which have been 

 raising crops on the same soil a number of thousands of years, and still the 

 soil holds its own and raises just as good crops as when it was first 

 used. Take Japan, for instance. I dare say she is raising just as good crops 

 today as she did a thousand years ago; or, China is raising just as good 

 crops as she did when she first began cultivation of the soil. I think some 

 are trying to raise too much in one season off from one piece of land. The 

 growers start out as early in May as they can, place their rows two and 

 one half feet apart, putting the plants about four inches in the row. If 

 they succeed in getting this crop off by July, they will start another crop 

 about four feet apart in the rows. By this method they are drawing very 



