184 GARDENING FOR PROFIT. 



should be used, even in cold weather, for ifc must always 

 be borne in mind that Celery is a vegetable that will stand 

 quite a sharp frost without injury, so if the temperature 

 of the cellar falls five or six degrees below the freezing 

 point, no injury will be done. When Celery or other 

 vegetables are packed away for preservation in cellars or 

 in the open field, it is indispensable that no water be 

 allowed to lodge in the pit or trench ; so that in the 

 event of using a cellar or root-house for this purpose, a 

 matter of first importance is thorough drainage, in soils 

 where drainage is necessary. 



Kegarding the profits of this crop I can speak from a 

 very extensive experience in its culture, having cultivated 

 at one time, an average of ten acres for eighteen years. 

 For many years, in the early part of that time, it was by 

 no means what we would now call a profitable crop. By 

 persisting in raising the large growing sorts, and the 

 awkward and expensive mode we had then of working it, 

 we were satisfied if it gave us a profit of $50 or $75 per 

 acre. But for the last twenty years, by adopting the flat 

 culture, and the drain or trench system for winter stor- 

 age, it has done much better, and is now* a very profitable 

 " second crop," averaging a clear profit of $250 per acre, 

 though it rarely brings here over $2.50 per 100 roots. 

 No doubt, in many parts of the country, it is much more 

 profitable than in the crowded markets of New York. It 

 is shipped from here in all directions to Philadelphia 

 (largely), Baltimore ard Washington (South), and to 

 Newport, Providence, Hartford and New Haven (East). 

 It is a bulky and expensive article to ship, and the dealer 

 must realize more than double on the purchase, or it will 

 not pay his risk. It must thus cost the consumer, in 

 those towns to which we send it, seven or eight cents per 

 head, a price at which it would pay a clear profit of 

 $1,000 or $1,500 per acre. 



If the awkward and laborious systems of cultivation 



