LEADING VEGETABLE CROPS I43 



from three to 3j4 feet between the double rows. 

 The so-called new celery culture consists in setting 

 the plants from six to eight inches apart in both 

 directions in strips across the field from 6 to lO 

 feet wide. Walks or paths are left between the 

 strips. After the growth is well started boards 

 are placed around the outside. The crowd- 

 ing plants soon cause the leaf stalk to grow 

 tall and the shading keeps them white. This 

 method economizes space, but does not produce 

 quite such high quality as where boards or earth are 

 employed for blanching purposes. The common method 

 found in some celery-growing sections is to lay the 

 land off in strips about six feet wide, each alternate 

 strip being planted to celery from six to eight inches 

 apart in both directions. In the intervening strip 

 some early maturing crop, as cucumbers, bunch 

 onions or beets, are planted. These crops come off 

 before the blanching process is started and the soil 

 in these strips becomes available for this purpose. 

 Both the wheel and horse cultivators are used in 

 stirring the soil during the growing season. Wheel 

 hoes are used extensively while the plants are small, 

 even where the single-row method of planting is 

 followed. Where two or more rows are planted 

 close together the wheel hoes are used in the narrow 

 spaces, while the wide spaces are cultivated with 

 horse implements. 



The value of celery depends directly upon the 

 whiteness and brittleness of the stalk. This condi- 

 tion can be secured only by some method of blanch- 

 ing which eliminates the light and causes the green 

 coloring matter to fade out, leaving the stalks white 

 in color and greatly improved in quality. Blanch- 

 ing is done by the use of boards, paper, tile or earth. 



