234 TKANSAClioNS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



or sixteen inches high, Ihey are worked by what is termed hand 

 handling, that is, the stalks being held close together, the earth is 

 drawn up and pressed around them. Later in the season they 

 are earthed up so as to form ridges two or three feet high. The 

 quautitj'^ and price vary so much that it is difficult to state it. The 

 range is from $200 to $400 per acre. For keeping celery so that 

 it can always be oi)tained during the winter, a narrow trench is made 

 fourteen to sixteen inches deep, upon a spot that has a slight incli- 

 nation, and in this trench about the last of October, or before 

 freezing weather, the plants are packed as closely as they can stand, 

 and hay placed along each side, so as to be convenient for cover- 

 injr whenever a freezino: uiijht threatens; and before the jrround 

 freezes it is hauled up an each side of the row, the plants being 

 previously' closely pressed together, and then so banked up that 

 only the center of the tops stick out. The whole ridge is then 

 covered with coarse manure sufficient to prevent freezing. In fill- 

 ing the trench ahvays commence at the upper end, and in taking 

 out the celery whether for use or to send to market, always work 

 up from the lower end. 



Milk-weed as a Substitute for Cotton. 



Dr. Henry Guernsey, New York, exhibited a variety of speci- 

 mens of the raw material and manufactured articles from the fiber 

 of milk-weed (Asclejnas coimuti), aud addressed the club at consid- 

 erable length in the endeavor to convince the members that this 

 fiber will ])ecome a substitute for, or, at least, a competitor with, 

 cotton. He had specimens from Sonth America, where he sa3s it 

 grows wild in such profusion that it covers extensive plains. He 

 stated that it was also found in great abundance in Colorado. He 

 thinks in places where it grows wild in this region it can be very 

 profital)ly gathered, either for sale or domestic manufacture. 



Mr. Solon Rolnnson. — I have listened with attention to the 

 remarks of Dr. Guernsey, but he has not convincd me that milk- 

 weed would be a profitable crop. Milk-weed has been experi- 

 mented upon b}' a great many pei-s^ons. I have seen nothing to 

 sustain the idea that it can be used profitably in the manufacture 

 of cloth. Neither milk-weed nor any other wild plant could 

 compete with flax, cotton, hemp, wool or silk. Beside, it does 

 not appear from these specimens of cloth that the milk-weed fibre 

 is capable of being spun into anything but a course thread, and 

 that none of the evenest. 



