Vol. LXII. No. 2809. 
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 28, 1903 
81 PER YEAR. 
A PENNSYLVANIA CELERY FARM. 
TAPPING ONE OF NATURE’S POCKETS. 
Heavy Fertilizing in a Swamp. 
Part L 
Among the hills in northern Pennsylvania nature 
has tucked away many pockets and stuffed them full 
of plant food. The hills have given up the strength 
of their soil and sent it down to line these pockets. 
In these low places nature, usually so benevolent, 
grows miserly and ties up this plant food into sour, 
inert combinations which nourish only coarse and 
wellnigh useless vegetation. Man must step in and 
bring about the conditions needed to set this plant 
food free. 
This is just what Aaron R. Niles, of Tioga Co., Pa., 
is doing in growing celery at the head of a valley near 
the Chemung River. This valley was without doubt 
once a pond or small lake. The marks of the lake 
shore are plainly to be seen on the hillsides. Years 
ago the lake must 
have broken away 
through the hills 
and left the swamp 
with a sluggish 
stream running 
through it. At first 
men judge the 
value of soil by 
what grows natur¬ 
ally on it. Then 
they see its possi¬ 
bilities—t hat is, 
what it can be 
made to do if 
drained or i r r i- 
gated or fertilized. 
From that grows a 
study of the most 
desirable crops to 
grow in certain 
soils and the exam¬ 
ination of the soil 
to learn what must 
be added or whac 
must be done to it 
in order to make it 
fit. These steps 
mark what we call 
the development of 
soil culture. 
What Muck Will 
Do. 
If you judged 
the soTI of this 
valley by what grows naturally upon it, you would call 
it wellnigh worthless, for coarse grass and scrub trees 
are about all it can produce alone. That wais why Mr. 
Niles was able to buy some of it for $6 an acre. This 
same land one year after being cleared can be made to 
produce over ?300 worth of celery per acre! These gol¬ 
den pockets of Nature are picked by the men who have 
the faith and the courage to believe that they can 
make that store of plant food available. Some men 
go for years hauling muck out of a swamp, drying it 
and spreading it on the hills, without thinking of 
draining the swamp itself and growing their crops 
down in it! There are now nearly 125 acres of celery 
grown in the valley. While all growers use much the 
same tools and practice much the same methods, Mr. 
Niles’is experience this year is the most unique and 
interesting. At Kalamazoo and other places where 
celery growing is famous it has been claimed that 
stable manure is absolutely necessary to produce good 
celery. One striking feature of the culture in this 
Pennsylvania valley is that no stable manure is used. 
entire dependence being placed on chemical fertilizers. 
Mr. Niles has given this fertilizer problem a very 
careful study. What does this muck soil particularly 
lack and what does the celery crop need for its best 
development? Studies of muck which have been made 
at the experiment stations show that some samples of 
it contain almost as much nitrogen as ordinary stable 
manure, but that this nitrogen is rarely available until 
the muck has been composted or “weathered.” An¬ 
alysis also shows that muck contains but little phos¬ 
phoric acid and still less potash. That is why, when 
muck is hauled out for use as manure, chemists ad¬ 
vise a farmer to put it in a compost mixed with wood 
ashes or potash and phosphate. If this is the proper 
way to use muck when it is hauled out of the swamp 
as manure, the same method of fertilizing is sound 
when crops are to be grown in the swamp itself. 
tion he found that some growers on this muck soil ob¬ 
tained fair results by using kainit alone. As is well 
known, kainit contains about 12% per cent of potash, 
with no nitrogen or phosphoric acid at all. Yet, with 
the kainit alone fair crops of celery were grown. This 
celery was not of the highest quality, and the crop 
could not be kept up year after year on kainit alone. 
This seemed to show among other things that the fer¬ 
tilizing element most needed on that soil was potash. 
The kainit also acted on the soil to make some of its 
nitrogen available. One reason why celery grown in 
this way year after year does not “hold up” well, is 
because phosphoric acid is lacking, for that element 
gives “body” or frame to the plant. 
With potash and phosphoric acid absolutely needed 
Mr. Niles reasoned that stable manure would not 
prove the most economical fertilizer. If they used it 
at all they would need at least 30 tons per acre, which 
would cost at least $45. That would supply but a lit¬ 
tle over 150 pounds of potash and 350 pounds of phos¬ 
phoric acid, and not all of that by any means avail¬ 
able. Thus the stable manure supplied the plant food 
(nitrogen) which the muck was supposed to have al¬ 
ready in abundance, and was deficient in the very 
elements which were lacking in the muck. Other 
growers have followed the plan of using kainit or mu¬ 
riate of potash broadcast, and then using a low-grade 
fertilizer or “phosphate” in the drill. What is meant 
by a “low-grade” fertilizer is one with a high per cent 
of phosphoric acid and Ipw in nitrogen. This com¬ 
bination gave fair results in favorable seasons, but the 
results did not fully satisfy Mr. Niles. After careTul 
study he decided to adopt a novel plan. We have often 
told how the fertilizer farmers on the light soils 
of Long Island practically disregard the natural fer¬ 
tility of the land. They take soil so light that natur¬ 
ally it could not produce a good crop of anything, and 
apply a ton or more of high-grade fertilizer per acre. 
In this way they feed both the soil and the crop! 
Under this system the soil is only the trough in which 
the plants may brace themselves and drink and feed. 
The plant food in 
the fertilizer is all 
available. There Is 
no need to wait un¬ 
til humus is broken 
up or inert matter 
in the soil set free, 
for the fertilizer 
supplies every need 
of the plant. This 
method of disre¬ 
garding the plant 
food in the soil and 
feeding the plant 
out of a nursing 
bottle is supposed 
to belong to thin 
land, where high- 
priced crops are 
grown, but Mr. 
Niles decided to at¬ 
tempt it on soil 
containing nearly 
as much plant food 
as average manure. 
This was his prop¬ 
osition: “Here is a 
soil naturally 
adapted to celery 
growing. I will pay 
no attention to any 
chemist’s analysis, 
but simply assume 
that this soil is a 
good place for cel¬ 
ery to grow and 
spread out its roots. I will then add a ton or more of 
fertilizer per acre, so that at no time of its growth 
can the celery lack plant food.” ii. w. c. 
A THRIFTY FARMER. 
“He’s the thriftiest farmer in town,” was the reply 
to a question asked an acquaintance about a farmer 
whose place, still in sight, we had just passed in our 
drive that afternoon searching for good cows (we had 
better luck than usual, as two of the three bought 
turned out w'ell). It had been the best-looking place 
we had seen. The house was neatly painted, the yard 
clean and free from wagons, rusting machinery or de¬ 
caying boards that litter up iso many yards, and give 
a place a down-trodden, dilapidated appearance. We 
noted a swing and hammock, showing that some one 
took a little comfort now and then with his work. We 
inquired further about this farm and Its owner. He was 
brought up to work in a shop from early manhood, 
but failing eyesight drove him on to the farm when 
about 30 years of age. He bought a dairy farm in a 
What Fertilizers To Use. 
When Mr. Niles began to shidy the fertilizer ques¬ 
TilREE-YEAR-OLD SHORT-llORN COW. FIRST PRIZE WINNER IN ARGENTINA. Fig, 303. See Page 830. 
