156 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Celery involves a great deal of labor, but pays more to the 
acre, if there is a market for it, than any other vegetable. We 
use for this crop the very richest land we have, and grow on it 
an early crop of radish, lettuce, and sometimes early potatoes. 
We clear the ground for the second crop sometime in the last 
half of June, and at once set out—in shallow trenches deeply 
stirred and enriched—stocky, well-grown plants from seed 
sown in earl} 7 April in the seed bed. We sometimes start our 
plants in the hot-bed in March, and transplant two inches apart 
in a rich, shady bed in May, to be sure of large, stout plants. 
Otherwise we treat as described in all the recent works on 
gardening, and think it a good crop. It has never been less 
than five, and once as high as twenty-five cents a bunch, gen¬ 
erally ten cents. At these prices-an acre returns from $1,000 
to $5,000; generally $2,000. We find market for about one 
half acre in this town of 12,000 inhabitants, and perhaps other 
growers raise one fourth acre more. The demand is constantly 
growing, and we hope soon to market an acre annually. I un¬ 
derstand that in the vicinity of our large cities more money is 
made from this crop than any two others together, and my own 
experience leads me to think it probable true. 
Cucumbers. —Earlv cucumbers started on sods in the hot-bed 
and transplanted to the open garden have never paid us because 
of small demand, and low price considering the great labor in¬ 
volved, and we have ceased to grow them in this way, but plant 
them as early as we dare, on warm rich soil, and by frequent cul¬ 
tivation and hoeing hasten forward the crop. Dust the plants 
while the dew is on both above and beneath with plaster or ash¬ 
es to keep off the striped bug, Grown in this way we market 
about one-half acre .at twenty-five to forty cents per dozen 
for large sized fruit for table use, yielding a gross return of 
$250 per acre or about $160 net. The white spined is by far 
the best for this purpose. 
Of cucumbers for pickles we always find a good demand for 
all we can grow on three or four acres. We usually plant them 
between hills of early potatoes on manured furrows about the 
