A PENNSYLVANIA CELERY FARM. 
TAPPING ONE OF NATURE’S POCKETS. 
Heavy Fertilizing in a Swamp. 
Part IV. 
I shall not attempt to write an essay on celery 
growing. No man can learn how to manage such a 
farm as this by merely reading about it. He should 
go and work on the farm and follow the crop through 
its life. Where one sweats a fact out through the skin 
he will have a firmer grasp on it than if he merely 
absorbed it through his brain. As Mr. Niles says, 
there is a knack about doing things which must grow 
out of the man—not into him. A most important item 
for any crop is selection of good seed. Mr. Niles is very 
careful about this, buying the best he can find, and 
testing it early in the season by sowing fair samples 
of it in boxes inside 
the house. He thinks 
such a soil test far 
better than sprouting 
on a plate between 
pieces of damp blot¬ 
ting paper or cloth. 
As to the amount of 
seed required to fur¬ 
nish plants for an 
acre, Mr. Niles says 
that three ounces will 
usually be ample, but 
that it is safer to use 
four ounces. His first 
sowing this year was 
in beds on March 14. 
These beds were 
made so that they 
were very rich and 
warm and the celery 
came up April 1. The 
first plants were set 
May 15 and the ear¬ 
liest harvesting was 
August 5. Another 
lot was sown in beds 
April 11—the drills 
two inches apart. 
This averaged 20 
days in sprouting 
and was set out June 
5, with first harvest- 
i n g September 20. 
The outdoors plant¬ 
ing began April 23 
and continued till 
May 7. The season 
was so cold and wet 
that the outdoor 
sowing was very slow to start. Usually 21 days are 
required for the seed to sprout, but some of this seed 
required twice that time. It must not be thought that 
all one has to do is to sow the celery seed and then 
let it alone until ready to start at setting. The plants 
require constant care and attention, for everything de¬ 
pends on starting a quick and vigorous growth. Ah 
an illustration of the troubles which confront even 
these experienced celery growers, I may state that 
last Spring an insect which they had not observed be¬ 
fore suddenly appeared on the young celery plants. It 
was assumed, of course, that this insect would destroy 
the plants, and some growers at once sprayed with 
kerosene emulsion, quite severely injuring the plants! 
Mr. Niles sent in haste to an old celery grower for 
advice, rmd was told to let the insects alone, as they 
lived uilon other insects and did not eat the plants— 
thus doing far more good than harm! 
VTien the time comes for setting the plants the soil 
is thoroughly tilled. The disk harrow is a popular 
implement for this work. It is a singular sight to a 
hill farmer to see the horses in this swamp wearing 
boards or plates of metal about nine inches square 
fastened to their feet. This is necessary to give them 
a footing, for without these boards they would mire 
in this soft soil and sink the full length of their legs. 
It was interesting to see how carefully these horses 
had learned to swing their feet around so as to avoid 
“interfering. It was not unlike a man walking with 
snov/shoes. 
As before stated, Mr. Niles has broadcast most of 
his fertilizer. He now intends to use a part of it 
“under the plant,” that is, drilled where the rows are 
to run, with a ridge thrown over it on which the 
plants are set. Where muriate of potash is used it 
will be broadcast and cut in with the disk, while sul¬ 
phate of potash can be drilled. 
Setting is, of course, done by hand, for while there 
are machines which do good work with strawberries 
or cabbage, celery, like milking, demands hand work. 
Planting is done by the day. !Mr. Niles says that he 
gets a better job on this basis than he does when the 
planting is done by the 1,000. Each man goes to the 
bed for his own plants, and does his own culling. This 
appears to work better than the plan of having one 
man at the bed to take up the plants, sort them and 
carry them to the planters. There are 3,500 plants in 
one row on this big farm, and a day’s job of setting 
is from 7,000 to 10,000 plants. 
After the plants are set the work of tillage is con¬ 
stant. The weeds must be kept down and the soil 
must be kept constantly stirred. Hoe and cultivator 
are kept at it whenever the weather permits. The 
rows are 90 rods long, and eight of them make an 
acre. A fair day’s work of man and horse at culti¬ 
vating is 13 miles of travel up and down these rows. 
There is always danger from blight, apd at times 
spraying with Bordeaux must be done. Thus far 
knapsack sprayers have been used for this. 
At the proper time the celery must be hilled for 
blanching. I saw this done with the horse hiller. One 
man went ahead with a Planet Jr. single cultivator 
to stir up and loosen the soil between the rows. An¬ 
other man followed with the “hiller,” which is much 
like a snow plow, made of steel and with a curve to 
the shares so that the soil is packed up around the 
celery and not turned over. This hilling is not done 
all at once, but by degrees as the crop matures—the 
soil being scooped up from the middles and packed 
against the plants. In watching this tool work one 
can easily see why Mr. Niles wants part of his ferti¬ 
lizer under the drill so as to induce the plants to root 
deeply. This hilling must rip up many roots, and if 
they were mostly near the surface great damage 
might be done in a 
dry season. Fig. 323 
shows one of these 
hillers at work in a 
celery field—though 
this picture was not 
taken on Mr. Niles’s 
farm. 
There are few 
busier places than 
this celery farm in 
the height of the 
shipping season. 
■When the celery is 
ready it must go. 
Two big horses haul 
a machine which 
looks like a huge 
drawing knife 
mounted on wheels. 
This knife is hung 
so that it runs 
through the banked- 
up soil below the 
plan ts—cutting off 
the roots and leaving 
them standing. Fig. 
322 shows this ma¬ 
chine at work while 
the smaller. Fig. 321, 
shows the cutting at¬ 
tachment which can 
be fastened to a 
wheel cultivator or 
hiller. Following this 
machine comes a 
gang of men who 
take up the plants 
and break off the 
outer stalks—leaving 
the white inside stalks—and pack in ci’ates. These 
crates are carried to the washing shed. Here are vats 
and tanks of running water and men with rubber 
aprons. Everything here moves like clockwork. The 
celery comes from the field with the black muck soil 
on its roots. These men wash this off by dashing the 
roots in water. With clean feet the plants are thrown 
into vats where quick hands sponge them and sort 
into three sizes. The bunchers pack them in bunches 
of one dozen roots, and tie tightly with red ribbon. 
.Then the packer puts them in crates, marking each 
crate with ihe number of bunches and the grade, so 
that when the crate reaches Philadelphia they are all 
ready for delivery. As quickly as possible the crates 
are hustled into the iced car and when the train comes 
the car is whisked along on its way to Philadelphia. 
Shipping is done by fast freight and a car started in 
the afternoon reaches Philadelphia the next morning. 
The crates are nailed together in the packing shed. 
The timber is bought already cut, and simply has to 
A BACKWOODS GARDEN IN WASHINGTON. Fig. 318. FIRST PRIZE WINNER IN GARDEN CONTEST. 
