408 UPLAND SHOOTING. 



successful results from different lots of seed they have 

 shipped to clubs, etc. It is a simple matter to plant the 

 seed, the only thing necessary being to drop the pods at 

 the spot where the celery is wished to grow. The seeds 

 should doubtless be kept wet all the time, as that is their 

 natural condition. In Koshkonong Lake the wild celery 

 grows out of sand, clay, mud, or almost any other kind 

 of bottom, and there is no apparent reason why it 

 should not grow in any shallow water where it is well 

 planted. 



At the bottom of the water the fertilized seed-pod lies 

 until moisture and decomposition have released the seeds 

 from their covering. At any time before the pods have 

 reached the bottom on their return journey, it is prob- 

 able they are not fertilized sufficiently for growth. It is 

 on the bottom-, therefore, that the celery hunters look for 

 the seed. The only implement they use is a rake with a 

 wooden head about sixteen inches long, into which are 

 set ten inch teeth of stiff wire, about three-fourths of an 

 inch apart. Koshkonong is a shallow lake, hardly more 

 than six or eight feet at its deepest, so that the rake 

 need not be very long or ponderous. 



We rowed out of the mouth of the pretty Rock River, 

 crossed the head of the lake, along where the canvas- 

 back blinds are, and in front of the big bluff where 

 " Koshkonong Place" sits looking out over the lake. 

 We fell to raking like toilers of the sea. Three or four 

 ineffectual hauls were made, bringing up moss, pickerel 

 weed, decayed stems, and a few young croppies and bull- 

 heads, when Mr. Went worth called my attention to a 

 long, dark, slim-looking affair, tapered at both ends and 

 slightly curved. It was five or six inches long, and an 

 eighth of an inch thick, and looked more like a frozen 

 and disgruntled angleworm than anything else. 



' i There' s your celery seed, ' ' said he. And in this way, 

 after a half-hour of hard work in the icy water this 

 was November 24th we got half a dozen pods or so, 

 including a good specimen, and several in which the 

 natural decomposition had gone so far as to leave the 

 seeds exposed to view. We then went home, and it 

 appeared to us that the acquisition of wild celery seeds 

 was a very slow and laborious process. 



