GOLD FROM THE MARSHES OF KALAMAZOO. 



IHE STORY of Kalama- 

 zoo and its celery fields 

 can scarcely be told in 

 space less than a good- 

 ly sized book. 



Celery seems to be 

 the crop predestined by 

 nature for the utiliza- 

 tion of our marsh 

 meadows and tama- 

 rack swamps, and if 

 our Hollandish popu- 

 lation were not designed for the same end, yet Hol- 

 landers and the celery crop have made the lair of 

 the venomous massasauga into miles of smooth and 

 fertile gardens. 



Kalamazoo is situated on a burr oak prairie, in 

 the valley of the Kalamazoo river, and the marshes 

 are on three sides of the cit}'. These marshes are 

 crossed by cold and clear streams making into the 

 river at this point. 



No word picture can do justice to the view of our 

 valley city as it appears from the ranges of hills on 

 the east or westward. The park-like city in the 

 center, peering at a thousand points through the 

 heavy mass of foliage, all this edged on three sides 

 by hundreds of acres of beautiful fields, striped with 

 velvety black and satiny green that shimmers in the 

 summer sun and breeze, looks far more like a fairy 

 garden than a financial investment by the heavy- 

 footed natives of far-off Holland. 



But why did celery come to Kalamazoo ? The 

 answer is, We had the peculiar soil, the right cli- 

 mate and the Hollander. Celery was only the miss- 

 ing link ; that, when found, put us in ever increasing 

 correspondence with the outside world. 



Well, what of it ? What has it done for Kala- 

 mazoo ? Let us see. It brings in a round half a 

 million of money every year ; solid shekels, not stock 

 in one or two capitalists' vaults, not money that has 

 to go to the great importing houses of the eastern 

 cities, but 'tis carefully laid away in the old stock- 

 ing, some of it, and the rest goes for all the neces- 

 saries of life, and some of the luxuries, including 

 " clompen and switzer kase." And have we not the 

 second largest express station and the third largest 

 postoffice in the state of Michigan ? Is not "Kal- 

 amazoo Celery " tacked on to the waving plumes of 

 green that adorn the tables of the lovers of good 

 things all over this broad land ? 



Celery was probably introduced here by the ven- 

 erable gardener and nurseryman, George Taylor, 

 who, at the age of 86, may be seen any day busy 

 among the trees in which his soul delights, 

 but his farm was upland and it was up-hill work to 

 dispose of a dozen heads, for the peculiar tooth- 

 someness of this vegetable had not burst upon the 

 palates of the Wolverines. So it was not until ten 

 or twelve years ago that any attempt was made to 

 raise it in quantities for shipment, and the merit of 

 originating the idea seems to lie between two Hol- 

 landers, De Bruyn and Van Haften, and an Amer- 

 ican, the late P. C. Davis. These parties, were cer- 

 tainly the first to go into celery with a view to ship- 

 ment. 



How is celery grown ? In the first place, a long 

 and violent, or rather patient, wrestling match with 

 many and sundry tamarack stumps above ground 

 and below, willow and alder brush, or the tough 

 and wiry massasauga grass. After the surface is 

 smoothed of all these, the black muck is trenched 

 to the depth of 28 inches and the strong native sod 

 forever turned out of sight, but rarely is the early 

 crop raised on the new land ; one crop, or at the best 

 two are all that are attained the first year. 



The trenched land is then scrupulously leveled 

 and marked into rows, and the work of setting com- 

 mences. The young plants from the hot-house, 

 cold-frame or open seed-bed, according to the time 

 of year, are taken to the field in basket or wagon- 

 load, and soon the clean, black plain is dotted with 

 the crouching figures of the celery-growers. Young 

 and old, boys and girls, men and women, all furnish 

 the motive power for this seemingly endless task, 

 and the many hands are not long in striping the jetty 

 soil with tiny lines of vivid green. 



The first rows are set four feet apart and kept 

 clear by hand-hoeing or, very rarely, by horse cul- 

 tivator. In fact, horse cultivation is but httle used, 

 as the horses have to be shod with a patent clog to 

 keep them atop of the muck, and, except for mar- 

 keting and hauling all the stable manure they can 

 get their forks into, our Hollanders are very inde- 

 pendent of equine aid. 



As the first setting begins to run up, the so-called 

 second crop is set half way between the growing 

 rows, and it is nearly time for the commencement 

 of blanching the first setting. This blanching pro- 

 cess is the most important epoch in the life of the 

 celery plant, for the best of celery with a suspicion 



