46 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 



Bulletin No. 40. 



CELERY. 

 W. M. Munson. 



Celery is a native of Great Britain where in the wild state it 

 grows luxuriantly along wet ditches and in marshes. As a wild 

 plant it has a long tapering root, its taste is acrid and its odor 

 offensive. As a result of cultivation its leaf stalks have become 

 solid, crisp and of an agreeable flavor, while in one variety — 

 celeriac — the roots have become turnip shaped and edible. 



Although not grown to an important commercial extent in 

 Maine, the crop is one which may well be grown by every 

 farmer and may in many cases prove a most profitable adjunct 

 of the market garden. 



SOIL. 



The selection of soil in the culture of celery for profit is of 

 great importance. The best soil is a deep black muck with an 

 open, porous subsoil. It is upon such soil — often so soft that the 

 work must be done by hand — that the famous Kalamazoo 

 celery is grown. Soils of this character retain moisture well, 

 are easily worked and are usually in such a location as to permit 

 of controlling the water supply by means of irrigating ditches. 



The soil should be at least sixteen or eighteen inches deep 

 and a heavy clay subsoil, unless below the depth mentioned, 

 should be avoided, as it will interfere with satisfactory banking 

 of the crop. The swales or sloughs found on almost every farm, 

 when drained and broken up into a state of fine tilth, make 

 excellent celery land. If a certain amount of sand is mixed 

 with the black soil it is all the better. Throughout the country 

 there are many such swales which are now considered worth- 

 less, but which might be made the most profitable part of the 

 farm. 



The lack of such soils as above mentioned need not deter any 

 one from growing the crop for home use, for though somewhat 

 at the mercy of the weather, celery grown in uplands is more 

 solid, keeps longer, and is less liable to suffer from frost than the 



