CHAPTER XXIX. 

 CELERY. 



In no vegetable cultivated for the market has there been a greater advance 

 in the methods used than in the celery crop. Formerly it was grown almost 

 exclusively as a second crop in the smaller market gardens in the immediate 

 vicinity of the larger cities, and it was assumed that this was a crop that 

 would always be grown in this way. But the great development of the culture 

 of early summer and autumn celery, in the peaty swamp lands at Kalamazoo, 

 Michigan, first demonstrated the fact that the celery crop, too, could be shipped 

 from a distance. As the conditions for its growth became better understood, 

 it was found that for the late winter and early spring crop Florida and 

 California had special advantages, and now the celery crop is kept in con- 

 stant supply in all the cities from early summer till spring again, the supply 

 being almost continuous throughout the year. People in the South have 

 found out that it is useless for them to endeavor to grow the early celery, 

 and those in the far North have also found that they cannot store and compete 

 with the South and the Pacific coast in the late winter and spring celery ; each 

 section, therefore, has its turn at the market, and the crop is usually a 

 profitable one when well grown. 



The introduction of the self blanching varieties, while adding nothing to 

 the real table value of the crop, has improved the appearance of the plants as 

 table decorations, and has led to a new system of culture for the self blanch- 

 ing sorts, by crowding them into beds thickly and avoiding the earthing 

 process, which is essential to the production of the best and really crisp and 

 palatable article. But as celery is very largely used for its decorative effect, 

 these white but tough sorts have their place. 



While at Kalamazoo and other far northern points, celery may be 

 blanched by hilling in summer, in by far the larger part of the eastern section 

 of the country this cannot be done, owing to the heat of late summer and early 

 fall. The crop that interests most of our readers, North and South, is that 

 which comes in with the roast turkey and cranberry sauce, and lasts through 

 the greater part of the winter. 



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