CULTURAL DIRECTIONS 303 



in the season ; the stalKS are also cut into short pieces 

 and cooked, seasoned with cream and butter and served 

 like salsify or asparagus. It is one of our most whole- 

 some and palatable vegetables, although the nutritive 

 value is not high. 



Thousands of cars of celery are grown annually in the 

 muck soils of the large producing districts. The most 

 extensive areas devoted to this crop are in the Great 

 Lake region. Thousands of acres of muck lands are used 

 annually for celery culture in Michigan, Ohio and New 

 York. The industry has also become of great impor- 

 tance in California and Florida. With the varied climatic 

 conditions of the different states which are producing 

 celery on a large scale, our markets are well supplied 

 during most of the year. Eastern growers as well as 

 western producers begin marketing in July or earlier and 

 continue to supply the trade until January. Florida and 

 California crops are ready the latter part of December 

 and meet the demands until late in the spring. 



Intensive market gardeners of the North consider 

 celery one of their most profitable crops, and with the 

 overhead system of irrigation its culture is being rapidly 

 extended. 



398. Botany. — Celery belongs to the family of plants 

 known as Apiaceas. The botanists formerly classed this 

 vegetable under umbelliferae. It is usually biennial, 

 although, if seed is sown too early and the plants are 

 checked in growth, they may produce flowers the first 

 year This is sometimes a source of heavy losses in 

 large plantations of early celery. The flower stalk is 

 2 to 3 feet high, branched and leafy; the flowers are 

 white, inconspicuous and borne in compound umbels; 

 the seeds are very small and flattened on the side; the 

 leaf stalks are 6 to 15 inches long and bear three pairs 

 and a terminal leaflet coarsely serrate and ternately lobed 

 or divided. The wild plants have an acrid, pungent flavor. 



