1895 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
423 
not endure tramping-, especially by horses and cattle. 
On this account, a patch should be located where it 
could be pastured in case one wanted to kill it out. It 
does not g-row from seed, and so does not spread 
unless the roots are broken and scattered. 
The amount of green feed to be obtained from a 
given area is surprising. My 1,200 roots, planted 2x2>£ 
feet, occupied about one-seventh of an acre. From our 
computations made while cutting it. I am satisfied 
that the patch would feed a cow from May 1 to October 
15, in an ordinary year, without other feed. It seems 
to do better when cut about once a month, and by 
the time one had gone over the patch, he could go 
back and begin where he started and go over it again. 
The main drawback is the work of cutting and feed¬ 
ing. because the manner of growth makes much 
stooping necessary. The best tools are a scythe when 
it is tall, and a short-handled hoe ground sharp when 
it is short. 
To any one contemplating the experiment, I would 
say, try a small patch, and then, in a year or two, 
you can get plants enough from that patch to set one 
20 times as large if you wish it. f. m. mitchei.l. 
Huron County, O. 
SOME CELERY SUGGESTIONS. 
From Growing to Selling . 
TIIE QUESTIONS 
From a North Carolina Truck Grower. 
1 . I think it doubtful whether there would be a 
margin of profit in celery if a high price be paid for 
help. In years past, this was otherwise ; but celery 
producers have so much competition now that a 
majority of them sell the product below the cost of 
production, if they consider the real cost. Many 
growers, when they find that a crop has about paid 
for itself, consider that no loss has been sustained, 
losing sight of the fact that the time and capital em- 
p’oyed otherwise might have yielded a profit. 2. The 
best varieties to raise are the large kinds. A good 
strain of the old Large White Solid, markets well. 
Giant Pascal is satisfactory in every way. The dwarf 
sorts are only fit for private growers, and will not 
pay a commercial grower. There are varieties of 
better quality than those I name, but none so reliable 
for the wholesale market. 3. In the South, we get 
our young plants from the seed bed. which is shaded 
with heavy duck or sheeting stretched over stakes 18 
inches high, and firmly tied to each stake. This 
serves the double purpose of protecting from the hot 
sun and from heavy rainstorms which prevail here, 
and which would damage the plants. The shading is 
essential to the germination, of course. Seed is sown 
here about June 1, at which season the sun is exceed¬ 
ingly hot, and the rainstorms frequent and violent. 
The plants are gradually hardened to the weather 
before setting out in September. 4. There is, of 
not yet successfully raised very early celery in eastern 
North Carolina, and when our crop comes on about 
Christmas, we can get higher prices in the South than 
can be realized in the North, besides the fact that by 
selling our product here, we eliminate the commis¬ 
sion merchant of the North. The commission mer¬ 
chant does not rate so high in the estimation of the 
average Southern trucker as he does in Bradstreet’s. 
11. We have no trouble about keeping our celei'y 
until spring. We leave it where it grows, well 
banked up outside the blanching boards, and covered 
with pine straw, and dig as we want it. Ordinarily, 
it will grow all winter with us in this mild climate. 
Snow never lies 24 hours on the ground here, and 
there are sometimes several winters in succession 
when snow never falls, and the ground never freezes 
so as to prevent plowing. r. 
Columbus Countv, N. C. 
An Opinion from Delaware. 
1. Yes. 2 . White Plume gives the best satisfaction 
for the early crop, as it requires so little time to 
blanch ready for market. For the main crop, Golden 
Dwarf. Henderson’s Half Dwarf, and Boston Market 
give the best results, as they are vigorous growers 
and good keepers. 3. For the early crop, plant the 
seed in hotbed or greenhouse. Plants for the main 
crop are grown by sowing seed in drills (i to 12 inches 
apart in the open ground, as soon as the soil is fit to 
1. Where a high price is paid for help, can celery growing be so 
managed as to insure a profitable crop ? 2. What do you consider 
the best varieties to raise, and why ? 3. How do you 
obtain the young plants ? 4. Should they be trans¬ 
planted from the seed bed before the final setting out ? 
5. What is your method of growing and blanching? 6. 
Have you found a better material than earth for blanch¬ 
ing? 7. What causes rust ? 8. Arc you troubled with 
bitter celery ? 9. If so, can you assign a cause ? 10. In 
what manner do you market your celery ? 11. How do 
you keep it for the winter market ? 
Shipped in the Rough from Michigan. 
1. With good prices, yes ; or a largo busi¬ 
ness, even on smaller than usual margins, 
might put the balance on the right side of 
the ledger. The price of labor cuts no figure; 
the high-priced man is always the best—if he 
earns his money. 2. White Plume, because 
the market demands it. 3. I raise them from 
seed. 4. If raised in a hotbed, yes ; if in the 
open air, no. I always cut down once or 
twice ; it makes stocky plants. 5 and 6. In 
rows three feet apart, plants six inches in 
the row, I cultivate with a horse once when 
quite small, work the crop constantly, but 
shallow. Use sometimes the back, and some¬ 
times the teeth of sharpened iron garden 
rakes—nothing else. To force the crop when 
ready to blanch, I use boards 1x12 inches by 
l(i feet. Place on each side of the row, and 
leave a four-inch space at the top, fastening 
them by wire hooks over the top. Straw- 
blanched celery is the finest and best, but 
straw is expensive to handle, and the celery 
slower to blanch. It is rolled up close under 
the leaves, tight against the stocks, and held 
in place by short sticks, or No. 9 wire bent 
A shape, and the ends stuck in the ground on 
either side of the straw. Either of the above 
is better than earth, and more economical 
as to space. When blanched with earth, the 
rows should be 4 to 43^ feet apart (five are 
better), otherwise to get enough earth for 
banking, very many of the small surface feed¬ 
ing roots will be cut off, which will surely 
check the growth. I refer to fine celery. 
Short stalks, 12 to 14 inches high, weighing six to 
seven pounds per dozen, might be banked with earth 
from four-foot rows ; but 20 to 24-inch celery, weigh¬ 
ing 15 to 20 pounds per dozen, never, for such celery 
fills a four-foot row completely full of fine, white 
roots, that look like a mass of tangled thread three 
inches below the surface. 10 and 11. It is dug from the 
rows, leaving on most of the roots, and fresh or green 
outside leaves, tied in bunches eight inches square 
with binding twine, corded up in a lumber wagon, 
hauled to the railroad and seut “ in the rough ” (as we 
call it) packed standing, in refrigerator cars provided 
with two extra floors or decks, which allow three 
courses of celery. It goes west, and is washed, 
trimmed, etc., at its destination, giving the far-away 
markets very choice and always fresh goods. We don’t 
get so much per dozen as by the old way of washing, 
trimming, tying, wrapping, boxing, elc., but there 
is not so much work to do. The crop can be handled 
quickly this way. I never have attempted to keep 
it for winter market. Such celery as referred to 
can be and is grown on well-prepared, well-kept, 
sub-irrigated muck land, i: very highly manured,” 
and these last three words form the key to the whole 
business. E> L c> 
Evans Lake, Mich 
course, a great advantage in transplanting from the 
seed bed before the final setting out, but I grow on 
A CRATE FOR MARKETING CELERY. Fio. 133. 
too large a scale to practice it, and my custom is to 
take a large pair of shears and cut back the tops of 
the plants and thin out to, say, 1 % inch apart in the 
row. The plants are watered night and morning 
copiously, one of the waterings usually being with 
liquid manure, or a mild solution of nitrate of soda. 
5. The only satisfactory method of growing here with 
the help I employ, is in the old-fashioned four-foot or 
five-foot rows, the distance varying according to the 
mode of blanching which I intend to employ. If I 
blanch with boards on edge, four feet is ample ; if 
the crop is earthed, a greater distance between the 
rows is necessary. If my crop is on well-drained, 
light land, I blanch by earthing up ; the crop on low, 
moist ground, I blanch with boards, as the wet soil 
would be liable to rust the celery. 6 . 1 have an¬ 
swered this question above. My experience does not 
go beyond ea^th and boards for blanching. 7 . My 
theory of the cause of rust is handling and banking 
when the earth is moist. 8 . I am not often troubled 
with bitter celery. I think that it is caused by im¬ 
proper or dispi’oportioned fertilizer, or delay in 
blanching. 10 . I tie in bunches of six to eight stalks 
or roots, pack them in crates holdiog one and two 
dozen bunches, and ship to the better class of grocery 
stores through this State and south of here. We have 
work. The seed should receive but a very slight 
covering of earth, and the soil must be well firmed by 
means of the roller or t therwise. 4. It is 
hardly practicable to do so when a large area 
is planted. 5. We set the plants in very rich 
soil, six inches apart in rows three feet apart ; 
keep the soil thoroughly cultivated during 
the season, cultivating at least once each 
week. We blanch the early crop by means of 
boards 12 inches wide, stood up close to the 
plants on each side of the row. That grown 
for fall and early winter use, is banked with 
earth two or three weeks before growth 
ceases. The late crop, intended for use in 
late winter or early spring, is not banked ; 
but it is either packed upright in narrow 
trenches or stored in the cellar to blanch 
during the winter. We have had good re¬ 
sults with celery planted seven inches apart 
each way, especially White Plume and Golden 
Dwarf. 6 . We have found no better material 
than earth for blanching except for the early 
crop, for which I prefer boards as I find that 
the plants are less liable to rust than when 
earth is used. 7. A fungous disease. 8 . No. 
10. In this vicinity, the unbleached stalks 
and the roots are removed, and it is then put 
up in bunches of 0 to 12 plants. 11. It is 
either stored in narrow trenches, or else 
packed closely in low sheds which are 
banked and covered with earth and straw so 
as to prevent freezing. m. h. heck with. 
Delaware Experiment Station. 
Planted Close Together in Ohio. 
1. Where conditions are all favorable, I 
think it might. 2 . White Plume for early 
and Giant Pascal for late. 3. For the first, I 
sow in a hotbed early in March. For the 
main crop, I sow in finely pulverized soil, 
leaving a furrow every three feet to drain off 
surplus water, and for irrigation when there 
is not sufficient rainfall. 4. I never do. 5. 
In beds containing eight rows each. Three 
out of the seven spaces between the rows are 
10 inches wide, and the other four seven ; the 
plants are seven inches apart in the row. A furrow 
is made in each of the wide spaces for irrigating. 
W hen it is desirable to have the blanching done 
as quickly as possible, I take up the two outside 
rows on the bed, and place them (with the soil 
adhering to the roots) between the stocks of the re¬ 
maining rows, thus making them more compact. 
Water may be allowed to run in a ten-inch space in 
the middle of the bed in dry weather, keeping the 
celery growing, and assisting in blanching. 6 . Yes. 
Straw or boards. 10 . In crates as described in The 
R. N.-Y. last year. 11 . In crates, kept from freezing 
by litter or otherwise, and packed in cellars. 
Ohio. JOEL IIEACOCK. 
R. N.-Y.—A picture of Mr. Ileacock's crate was given 
last year, but so many new readers have since then 
come into the family, that we reprint it at Fig. 133. 
The box is 12 x 14 inches in the clear, and four inches 
deep, with standards 12 inches high, and pieces on 
three sides. The box is made of thin, soft-wood 
boards, and dipped in hot coal tar. Heavy brown 
paper is placed inside the crate. The celery is placed 
in as shown with whole roots and some soil left on 
them. For home marketing, this works well, as the 
celery is always clean and fresh and makes a much 
better appearance in the market. 
