REPORT OF THE CHEMIST. 343 



CELERY CULTURE AT KALAMAZOO, MICH. 

 By Frank Little. 



Kalamazoo Township, 6 miles square, is the county or shire town of Kalamazoo 

 County. The city of Kalamazoo, 2i miles square, is located in the geographical 

 center of the township, which is also, approximately, the center of the county, and 

 is situated on the line of the l\Iichigan Central Railroad, running east and west, and 

 the Grand Rapids and Indiana, and Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, running 

 north and south, midway between Detroit and Chicago, and at the great bend of the 

 Kalamazoo River. 



The Talley of the river at this point is fully 100 feet below the general level of the 

 table-land above, and averages 2^ miles in width. 



The city of Kalamazoo, which is in the valley of the river, is built upon a burr- 

 oak plain, which is slightly elevated above the bottom or marsh land that skirts the 

 stream and its tributaries, the Portage, Arcadia, and Axtell's Creek, which all empty 

 in within the city limits. The soil is a dark sandy loam, resting upon a substratum 

 of coarse gravel and sand, in which is found an inexhaustible supply of pure water 

 at a depth varying from 6 to 25 feet. 



The upland timber consists of the several varieties of oak, hickory, maple, linden, 

 elm, and other varieties. 



The celery gardens of Kalamazoo are located upon the bottom or marsh lands that 

 skirt the river and its ti-ibutaries. It is estimated that there are in the city and 

 township 3,000 acres of bottom-land, a large portion of which is adapted to the cul- 

 tivation of celery. This marsh soU is of inky blackness, peaty; in some instances 

 strongly impregnated with iron, and in others with marl or carbonate of lime. 



The saturation is copious as a rule tlu-oughout the season, owing to porosity of 

 soil, and the elevation being but slight above the river level. 



In 1875, or thereabouts, a native Hollander by the name of Lendert De Bruyn, 

 who had carried on a small upland garden and tried to raise a little celery, ditched 

 and spaded a narrow strip a few fept wide and two or three rods long of marsh at 

 the rear of his lot on South Burdick street, and set out a few plants of celery as an 

 experiment. His success was so marked that the next spring three or four other 

 Hollanders in like manner prepared a few rods of gi'ound with like results. 



Stimulated by the uniform success that had attended these efforts, and a market 

 being opened abroad by some enterprising dealers, a large number of Hollanders 

 soon embarked in the work. Large tracts of marsh-land were ditched, subdued, 

 and planted out to celery up and down the valley. Marsh-lands advanced rapidly 

 in value from a nominal average price of |30 per acre to threes four, and five hun- 

 dred dollars per acre. 



At the present time (July, 1885) the total area of celery lands under cultivation 

 within the city limits and suburbs is estimated at 1,200 acres, furnishing employ- 

 ment in this special industry to upwards of 2,000 laborers, besides a great number 

 of women and childi'en. 



Notwithstanding this remarkable expansion and wonderful success attending the 

 growth of celery in Kalamazoo, notably so within the past five years, the possibili- 

 ties of the future have only been half realized. While the annual acreage is rapidly 

 increasing, stimulated by a brisk, profitable demand for shipment, large areas of 

 land — probably 1,200 acres more, suitable for the cultivation of the plant — ^are still 

 unoccupied. 



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

 and subjugation of the natural soU, fertilization, planting out, and subsequent cul- 

 tivation and gathering the crop — almost entirely hand work from the co mm ence- 

 ment 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 mtervals varying from ten to thii'ty rods, as the case may requu'e. 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 2-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 ti-amway is laid for a Ught car to take the plow and cable back to the start- 

 ing point, and for the transjDortation of manure, boards, tools, plants, &c., onto the 

 field; but this is not the common practice now, as the marshes are drier than for- 

 merly. 



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

 children — who, in wooden shoes, bid defiance to malaxia ajid diphtheria, and seem 



