202 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES 



mento, and large plantations are made some years in Arroyo Grande, 

 San Luis Obispo county. 



In many parts of the state, especially on low, moist lands which 

 are frequently of saline character, wild celery grows thriftily, and 

 its growth has served as an incentive to commercial planting. This 

 wild celery is, however, not a native plant. It is merely the garden 

 celery which has escaped from cultivation and the escape must have 

 been at an early date, for the occurrence was noted by botanists at 

 least thirty years ago. It is now widely distributed. 



Locations for Celery. Celery thrives best in an equable, cool 

 temperature, but it accepts conditions in the "cool night" districts 

 of the interior valley. It does not well endure high heat ; it is hardy 

 against California valley frosts, and it demands adequate moisture. 

 It is, therefore, successfully grown in the fall and winter in regions 

 where summer heat is too high, and in the equable coast climate 

 it can be enjoyed all the year, providing ample soil moisture can be 

 assured. Commercially, it is summer grown for winter shipment 

 because it is then best received in the eastern markets. 



Soils. Aside from abundant moisture the chief requirement 

 of the plant is large amounts of decomposed vegetable matter in the 

 soil. This is provided in ordinary garden soils by the free use of 

 well-rotted manure, mixing it thoroughly with the soil by deep dig- 

 ging in or trenching, and for home supplies this should be under- 

 taken, but those who can, may avail themselves of the conclusions 

 of a grower at Castroville, near the coast in Monterey county, who, 

 after trying for a number of years, almost in vain, to raise good 

 celery on an ordinary dry garden soil, finally borrowed the use of a 

 little patch of reclaimed swamp land deep, black muck, well drained 

 but moist and grew on it very fine celery with but little labor. In 

 undertaking production on a commercial scale this advantage of 

 specially suited soil is imperative. An instance of such soil-fitness 

 is found in the peat lands of Orange County and the Stockton dis- 

 trict, where celery growing has reached the importance above noted. 

 The soil is a true peat, consisting almost wholly of decomposed 

 vegetable matter and becoming on cultivation, fine and homogeneous. 

 It is different from the partially-decomposed and coarse material 

 of the tule swamps. It occurs in Orange county in deposits of vary- 

 ing thickness and sandwiched with layers of sediment or clay, the 

 peat layers being, however, connected through the dense layers by 

 tubes through which the water rises in springs and sub-irrigates the 



