PREFACE* XI 



preserve a state of health, the delicate 

 tissues of its stalk will withstand only a 

 limited amount of maltreatment, and the 

 exact processes of culture which we must 

 pursue to secure a good crop of Celery and 

 keep it afterwards, can only be learnt by 

 long experience in the business. 



We frequently see men engage in the 

 business of vegetable growing without the 

 slightest intelligent idea of the nature of 

 plants, without patience and industrious 

 habits, and with so little common sense 

 as to expect large and good crops without 

 manure or high culture. These, and their, 

 number is very great, are the ones who 

 fail, and bewail their luck, and grow poor 

 and poorer, and finally sink to the condi- 

 tion of hired laborers for their more clever 

 neighbors. These are the men who find 



