Celery Culture With Sub-Irrigation, 
BY FREDERIC H. RAND, SANFORD. 
Replying to your request for informa¬ 
tion as to the plan I have pursued in 
the irrigation and drainage of the lands 
devoted to the raising of celery by the 
Florida Land & Colonization Company, 
it affords me pleasure to give you the 
following information: 
The plot of land selected by me for 
this purpose was a lot of twenty acres, 
common flat-woods land, selected with¬ 
out regard to its special fertility, but as 
nearly level as could be found. The 
land measured 1,128 feet east and west 
and 800 feet north and south, having a 
very slight dip toward the north, the lev¬ 
els when taken showing only about three 
inches fall in 800 feet. On the south line 
of this lot I sunk four artesian wells, 280 
feet apart. These wells each emptied 
into a receptacle made of brick and lined 
with cement, so as to be water-tight, 
sunk seventeen inches below the surface 
of the ground. These receptacles here 
are usually called '‘pockets” and will be 
referred to hereafter by that name. Ex¬ 
tending north from the first pocket at 
each well is a line of these pockets, twen¬ 
ty feet apart and connected by water¬ 
tight four-inch pipes, the outlet and in¬ 
let from each pocket being one length 
of iron pipe and the rest earthen pipe. 
Extending east and west from each 
pocket is a line of earthen drain pipe, not 
water-tight, the ends simply being laid 
together, placed in a bed of charcoal two 
inches deep and covered with two inches 
more of charcoal. From the last line of 
pockets on the north the four-inch water¬ 
tight pipes end in an open ditch. You 
will thus see that there is a line of water¬ 
tight pipes running from north to south, 
and a line of pipes not water-tight run¬ 
ning from east to west, each centering 
and emptying into each and every 
pocket, by means of which the flow of 
water is controlled and diverted into any 
part of the field where it may be required 
by simply placing a wooden plug in the 
outlet from one of the pockets in the 
north and south pipes. 
For example: We will say that the 
water is wanted in the middle of the 
field and not at any other point. We 
would then take water from either the 
first or second well; the water from the 
well empties into the first pocket and 
runs through the four-inch water-tight 
pipe, until it meets some obstacle to pre¬ 
vent its flowing. The part we wish to 
irrigate being in the center of the field, 
and there being twenty pockets, the 
water would flow into and out of ten 
pockets, but in the eleventh pocket I 
place a wooden plug to prevent a further 
flow. Now, to prevent a waste of water 
and to prevent its flowing into the 
ground before it reached the eleventh 
pocket, all the irrigation pipes which run 
