CELERY 125 



just over 2,000, is a great centre alike for potatoes, for 

 celery, and for other things besides, and I found there 

 on the occasion of my visit to the district that not only 

 does the local station-master take pride in what he can 

 produce from his i rood of land (he showed, for my 

 inspection, a bag containing forty potatoes he had dug 

 up from a single root, and a large collection of carrots 

 he had grown from a pennyworth of seed), but the goods- 

 yard foreman also told how he grew celery, and how 

 even his little boy of eight, who helped him with the 

 planting out, had a patch of his own, in which he grew 

 celery for sale, in order to raise a little pocket-money 

 for himself ! 



Some of the largest growers devote their land entirely 

 to celery. Others plant three rows of potatoes to one 

 of celery, the earth thrown up when the potatoes are 

 raised being available for banking the celery. In either 

 case there is scope for a good deal of employment, 

 especially in the bedding out of seedlings prior to the 

 final planting in the fields. This bedding out is done 

 mainly by women and boys, who are paid at the rate of 

 6d. or 7d. per 1,000. The work is done with such 

 rapidity that 10,000 plants a day represent a fair 

 average, while individuals who are especially skilful will 

 put in 17,000 plants in a day. The cost of planting celery 

 varies somewhat according to the district, but one large 

 grower with whom I conversed estimated the cost to 

 himself at about 20 per acre, exclusive of rent and 

 other expenses. 



The great expansion in celery production in this 

 country has been brought about mainly during the last 

 twenty years, and although that expansion is still pro- 

 ceeding, the output of English-grown celery already 

 offers some very substantial figures. Six miles north 

 of Spalding (Lincolnshire) there is a place known as 



