VOL. Lll. No. 2246. 
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 11, 1893. 
PRICE, THREE CENTS. 
$1.00 PER YEAR. 
CLOSELY CROWDED CELERY. 
CULTURE BY THE NIVEN' METHOD. 
During the past season we tested in our own garden 
on a small scale the new method of growing celery as 
practiced by Mr. Niven and illustrated in The Rural 
on page 181 of last year. We planted six rows of 50 
plants each, set seven inches apart in the rows and 
the first two rows seven inches apart. These seemed 
so close that the remaining rows were planted 12 
inches apart. The varieties grown were the White 
Plume and the Golden Self blanching. During July 
and August there was very little rain and the plants 
made little growth The six rows made such a nar¬ 
row bed—only 50 inches between the outside rows— 
that we feared the plants would not blanch well and 
about September 10 we placed two boards one foot 
wide, one above the other, on each side of the bed to 
exclude the light. 
The plants made very little further growth after 
that, and in consequence the Golden Self-blanching 
was not well blanched, although the stalks were so 
very tender that they would break off when one at¬ 
tempted to pull up a plant by taking 
hold close to the ground. The White 
Plume was perfectly blanched and of 
excellent quality. Late in autumn the 
Golden Self - blanching plants were 
packed away in a narrow trench dug as 
deep as the plants were long, many of 
them being three feet, where the 
stalks have continued blanching and 
at the present time we are using on 
our table celery that was removed 
from the trench and placed in the 
cellar just before the present cold 
weather. 
We are so well pleased with this 
method that we shall try it again the 
coming season and shall set the plants 
seven inches apart each way and make 
the bed very much wider, as we think 
by so doing the plants will blanch 
better. The illustration (Fig. 27) is 
from a photograph of the celery taken 
while growing in the garden. The 
five rows to the right show that 
planted after the Niven method, while 
at the left is a row of White Plume 
blanching by means of boards on each side instead 
of soil. M. H. BECKWITH. 
Agricultural Experiment Station, Newark, Del. 
R. N.-Y.—For the benefit of newer readers, we will 
briefly restate the main features of what is called the 
“ New Celery Culture.” The soil is well enriched and 
prepared with great care, being made as fine and open 
as tools can make it It is then marked off in rows 
seven inches apart each way. The plants, started as 
usual from seed, are set out in the cross marks seven 
inches apart all over the field. They are cultivated 
with the wheel hoe and hand tools as long as possible 
and irrigated or watered so that the soil never be¬ 
comes very dry. Mr. Nivens, who described this 
method in last year’s R. N.-Y., uses chemical fertilizer 
entirely for feeding the crop. 
Troublesome Locust SrROUTS.— On page 37 S. asks 
how to get rid of of these. He will not find them 
troublesome after the first summer if, during it, he 
mows them off close with the grass of the house lawn 
which they stand in. But not one should be left to 
get into a fully opened leaf. 
The Paradise as a Stock. —A serious fault of this 
apple as a stock for a bearing tree (bush) is its extreme 
brittleness. When an inch in diameter the wood will 
snap short off like a young bean pod, and this fatality 
is apt to occur when the tree is loaded with fruit, if 
not before. w. 
BLANCHED WITH STRAW. 
A SUCCESSFUL CELERY GROWER TALKS. 
Irrigation from a stream; increased use of chemical 
fertilizers ; tools for preparing the ground; wires 
and straw for bleaching ; advantages of this plan; 
sold with its roots on ; crate for marketing the celen'y. 
I have about an acre and a half of celery land in 
cultivation. The beds lie in a basin, the surrounding 
land having a gentle incline for some distance. They 
slope gently to the north, where there is a small 
stream, into which they are drained. I follow no 
special mode of preparing or manuring different from 
that in general use. Of the fertilizers used about one- 
third were commercial kinds, the rest stable manure, 
but I intend hereafter to increase the proportion of 
the former. The ground being thoroughly prepared, 
I use acorn marker, making the rows, which run north 
and south with the decline of the beds, 3)^ feet apart. 
I then use a one-horse corn-planter which deposits 
400 pounds of complete fertilizer per acre in the rows. 
A line is then stretched. A wheel about four feet in 
diameter (taken from a worn-out rake) with paddle¬ 
shaped pins inserted in the rim, is run along this line, 
making holes for the plants. The pins or paddles 
should be about two inches wide and the same in 
length and one inch thick at the base, made of hard 
wood of wedge shape dressed to a sharp edge. When 
the holes, which should be about six inches apart, are 
made, the planter with “ knee boots ” made from the 
tops of worn-out rubber boots, gets down on “ all 
fours” astride of the row, the dropper with a basket 
containing a partition, the space on one side of which 
is filled with plants taken from the bed in early morn¬ 
ing while the dew is on; the larger ones all of about 
equal size, are dropped to the planter and the smaller 
into the empty place in the basket, to be planted by 
themselves. When the row has been finished a sort of 
double-wheeled harrow is run astride of it, leaving a 
Y-shaped track into which water is run until the 
ground about the roots is thoroughly soaked. I use a 
system of irrigation by means of tiles from a nearby, 
never-failing stream, the water being conducted along 
the upper side of the celery beds, which are irrigated 
by flooding down between the rows. 
In cultivation, while the plants are small I use the 
Planet Jr. wheel-hoe, and a horse cultivator between 
the rows as soon as possible after each rain, keeping 
the ground as nearly level as can be conveniently done. 
If it is inclined to be cloddy, I run a float between the 
rows, crushing and burying the clods in the loose soil 
so that they may be softened by the next rain, when 
they can be worked up fine by the cultivator. 
I bleach with straw hauled in a cart that straddles 
two rows, the horse walking in the middle. I throw 
it from the cart between the rows, and then walk be¬ 
tween them, and with a fork divide the straw and 
throw it up under the leaves and against the stocks on 
the one side of each row. This done, a No. 12 fence 
wire is stretched on each side of the row, and staked 
at the ends with stakes about two inches square and 
two feet long, on each of which is a hook, 8 or 10 inches 
from the lower end, to catch the wire as it is driven 
down; a block or short board must be set up under the 
wire near the stake, over which the wire will draw as 
the stake is driven. Wire dogs from six to eight inches 
long are used by running them through near the top 
of the straw, catching the wires, thus drawing the 
straw tightly against the celery. In the morning 
while the dew is on, or after a shower of rain when 
the straw is damp, take something like a hand rake 
and beat the straw up against the celery and the job is 
done. There are the following advantages in the use 
of straw: first, it imparts fertility to the soil for the next 
crop; second, the cultivator can be run 
as before it was put on ; third, the 
celery will grow as well after it is 
put on, if not better; fourth, it may 
be put on August 1, and remain until 
the time when the crop is to be taken 
in for winter, without injury to the 
celery ; fifth, it is not in the way in 
gathering the latter, which can be 
taken up perfectly clean. 
In marketing I use boxes 12 by 14 
inches in the clear and 4 inches deep, 
made of half-inch pine or poplar 
lumber, dipped into boiling coal tar, 
which makes them water-proof and 
water-tight, with standards fastened 
in the four corners. For these I use 
common plastering lath, one making 
three standards. At the top of these 
I attach a piece of lath on the two 
sides and on one end, leaving the other 
open This box or crate is set into 
an X, like a saw-horse, so that the 
celery can be placed in a half-lying 
and half-standing position, when a 
little earth is thrown in to fill cor¬ 
ners. The stock is taken by the roots in the left 
hand, and with the right all unbleached limbs are 
removed. With one hand to the top and the other to 
the root, it can be placed in the crate without touching 
the bleached part, and thus kept clean. When six 
stocks have been put in, the row is full. Then a little 
soil is thrown on the roots and we continue the work 
until six rows are in, when the crate is full. The open 
end of the latter is provided with a wire of suitable 
shape to keep the celery from falling out when the 
cap is let down. The dealers cut off the stalks, 
leaving the roots, now worthless, in the crate. It is 
much handier to send in these crates than to wash, 
trim and tie up the plants in the old way. The dealer 
likes this method, too, because the celery can be kept 
fresh for a considerable time, and the consumer gets 
it in better shape, which he is sure to appreciate and 
pay extra for. 
I haul it five miles to a town of 8,000 or 10,000 inhabi¬ 
tants, and get .$1 a crate, containing three dozen. In 
the fall, immediately after the crop has been taken off, 
the ground is plowed by going one round for each row. 
Where the celery has been taken out, there is an open¬ 
ing in the straw, and in this the coulter is run, turning 
half of the straw usedion the row, with the furrow, into 
the middle between the rows, leaving the ground in 
condition to freeze in winter and dry out in early spring. 
Marlboro, O. joel hkacock. 
Celery as Grown by the New Method. Fig. 27. 
