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CELERY CULTL^RE 



TRENCHING 



We commence trenching White Plume about October twentieth. 

 The process consists simply in digging a trench about a foot wide and 

 deep enough that, when the celery is placed in the trench, the tops will 

 stick out about two inches. 



For digging the celery, we have an attachment made at the black- 

 smith's similar to our onion-set harvester, which is fastened to a two 

 horse riding cultivator. The celery is then pulled up by hand, most 

 of the dirt shaken from the roots, and the broken or decayed leaves 

 and suckers pulled off. It is then carried to the trench, where a man 

 in the trench packs it tightly in an upright position. No dirt is 

 placed around the roots. 



The boards used in blanching the early crop are nailed together 

 V-shape, and placed over the trenches to keep off rain and prevent 

 the sun and wind from wilting the celery. One of the secrets of 

 keeping celery is to keep the tops dry. Manure is then placed in 

 piles along the trenches. On the approach of cold weather, a little 

 manure is placed along the bottom of the boards, and when the 

 weather becomes very severe, more manure is added. We seldom 

 put more than two inches of manure over the boards. 



IRRIGATION 



For a number of years, we have been irrigating part of our celery. 

 For this purpose we use a Knowles No. 6 pump and a twenty horse 

 power boiler. The pump has a three inch suction, and a two and one- 

 half inch discharge. It will throw under our conditions from one 

 hundred to one hundred fifty gallons per minute. 



A two and one-half inch discharge pipe is run along one side of the 

 field. From this pipe two inch laterals are run one hundred twenty 

 feet apart. Two inch valves are placed one hundred feet apart on the 

 laterals. A fifty foot length of mill hose is fastened to the valve, and 

 the water allowed to run between the rows. This season we tried 

 two acres with the Skinner system, and are so well pleased with the 

 result that we will use this method altogether in the future. 



