72 VEGETABLE GROWING. 



CELERY. 



There are many reports of success in celery-growing 

 in the South. The profit in this line of vegetable- 

 growing depends largely upon individual tact. In 

 Northern sections, as about Kalamazoo, Mich., and 

 New York, it is raised as a second crop, but we have 

 to raise it as a first crop. 



SOIL. 



The South has enough excellent celery land to 

 supply the market of the United States. In choos- 

 ing a plot, two points must be kept in mind. First, 

 the most important, the soil must be rich, not in hu- 

 mus alone, but in phosphoric acid and potash also ; sec- 

 ond, the soil must be moist and well drained. Much 

 of our drained muck land has failed to produce celery 

 because it was too dry. Again, some has failed be- 

 cause the essential elements were not well balanced, 

 and hence the soil was not really fertile. Again, 

 some muck land was too new, and caused the crop 

 to "rust" and decay. Celery -raising pays, because 

 it takes more brains to raise it than many other 

 crops do. 



PREPARATION OF THE SOIL. 



In Northern celery-growing sections, a crop of early 

 vegetables is taken from the land, and then the celery 

 is planted. The land, having received a heavy appli- 

 cation of manure before the early vegetables are 

 planted, is not fertilized again unless some thoroughly 

 rotted compost can be obtained. Fresh or undecom- 

 posed manure causes a rusting of the vegetable that 

 unfits it for market. The old way of growing celery 

 was to prepare the land well and deeply, and then 

 make trenches six to eight inches deep, and set the 



