MARKETING MUCK LAND CROPS 



83 



CELERY 



First of all, be sure that you have a good strain of the partic- 

 ular kind of celery your market wants. Keep it in a good, healthy 

 condition. Do not permit it to become blighted. If your celery is 

 badly blighted, it will not stand up. By the time it arrives at destina- 

 tion, brown spots will be all over it. That is not the way to tempt 

 the consumer's eye. It should be the aim of every celery grower to 

 grow celery as nearly perfect as possible and to put it up as neatly 

 as possible. The taste of blighted celery is worse than the looks. 

 The person who buys this says, 'T will buy no more." 



Never bleach your celery with dirt in warm weather. For every 

 time it comes out in good shape, it is going wrong about twenty-five 

 times. You cannot afford to take such chances. Bleach with 

 boards or paper. 



I might say one word about close culture. The method of grow- 

 ing celery under close culture has taken quite a hold with a large 

 number of growers. I use double row system on the early. I have 

 discarded it on the late entirely, because it is impossible to grow late 

 celery of good keeping quality under the double row system, the 

 inside of the stalk becoming blanched too much before the outside is 

 fit to harvest, and it will not stand up. If you market while small, 

 the celery is good. Don't let it become over-blanched before you 

 ship it, as the stalk becomes watery and rots. 



Don't permit the celery to lie in the sun till it becomes wilted. 

 I have known growers to take great care and pride in growing a 

 good crop of celery and then almost ruin it in harvesting by permitting 

 it to wilt, thus spoiling its appearance. It will never tempt the con- 

 sumer thus. If every grower would think more about keeping his 

 celery in perfect condition up to the time it is placed in the hands of 

 the consumer, instead of only keeping it in fair shape till it goes out 

 of his own hands, how much better it would be. It would be the 

 means of increasing the output of celery thirty per cent or more. 



Celery washed in cold water will stand up for twenty -four hours 

 longer than if washed in warm water, to say nothing of its better 

 sanitary condition. 



If your customer can use a standard crate at a shipment, then 

 use this. The height should be adjusted according to the height of 

 the celery. Stand your celery upright. If you wash and bunch it, 

 line the inside of the crate with paper, never using paper with color- 

 ing. Don't trim your celery down to the white core. It will make 



