St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-08-13

tnelr original bed and stored carefully
away in winter cellars or ''coOps.'
These winter Repositories are built to
exclude the frost, aud have facilities
for lighting aud heating in extreme
cold weather They are built usually
"a feet wide, and one, two or three
hundred feet long as the case requires
In constructing these scoops" which
are built on dry land near the gardens,
the earth is excavated about two feet
below the natural surface for the entire
area to be enclosed. The sides are then
boarded up two feet above the natural
surface to the caves, making side walls
four feet high inside. A ridge pole is
| duly supported through the centre six
feet high, and fourteen feet boards are
used for roofing, with occasional open
ings in the roof for windows and ven
tilatiOn. The outside is well banked
up with earth against the boards to
the caves, and the roof covered with
straw, manure and earth to exclude
frost.
In housing the celery for winter use,
beginning at the back end of the
Coop the plants that are green and
small as they are selected from the
field are first packed away at the far
Their end closely together, standing up
on their roots, which are slightly
al. l. iA1 .apfb nd or IN.
keep them growing. To prevent heat
ing, the plants, as they are slowed
away, are divided into long narrow
sections by boards set up edgewise.
Green and immature plants are always
placed at the back end, so as to be the
last to come out in the early spring,
when the season closes; while the
larger and more mature heads are saw
ed to go i'm last near the door. In this
manner the scoop" is filed to the en-
trance with one or two hundred thous-
and dozens of plants, more or less, as
the case may be. The proper manage
ment of these winter cellars is an I'M
pOrtant feature of the enterprise, re-
quiring constant vigilance and excel
lent Judgment to regulate the light,
heat, ventilation, growth and steady
successful bleaching of the plants.
Another method of winter storage is
sometimes practiced by digging a
trench two feet deep, two feet wide,
and any desired length. The plants
are then packed as closely as they will
stand uprightly upon their roots in the
trench, and covered with straw, earth
and manure to keep them from freez-
ing. While celery thus secured, when
in good order, is said to he preferable,
yet there are serious objections to the
method in this latitude. For the plants
long excluded from the air would he
likely to smother and decay, there
would he danger from frost, and they
would be inaccessible in prOtracted pc
RODS of extreme cold weather. The
winter demand for celery for shipment,
during the holiday season,
is constant and undated, and the
Scoop" system enables the grower to OBJ
tain access to his stock every day, even
in the coolest weather, note its condi-
ton, and prepare it daily for market
until the crop is exhausted.
Kalamazoo celery is now shipped to
nearly every state in the Union. The
annual product is estimated at up
wards of ,200, 900 dozens, and valued
at $250,0OO. The regular season COM
mences about the first of July, and,
being prolonged by the practice of
winter storage described, lasts until
the succeeding March or April.
Kalamazoo celery takes high rank in
tho various markets where offered. 1t |
is remarkably uniform in size and
quality of luxuriant, rapid growth
crisp, aromatic, nutty tiavO or; and gen
orally sound and free from rust. The
large thrifty heads are generally more
salable, but IL medium size is to be pre-
ferred as being more tender and solid.
As an escnlent, it undoubtedly requires
a somewhat cultivated taste to relish
celery but this taste is readily ac-
1uired, and as u condiment and appe-
tizer-tO say nothing of its valuable
medicinal properties as nervine and
celery stands unsurpassed.
The foregoing sketch of the rise and
of celery culture in Kalamazoo
but imperfectly delineates the devel-
Dpment of an industry that has proved
of great practical value, not only to
this locality; but, the success and fame
of the undertaking having gone abroad
elsewhere in this state and other states,
The more extensive cultivation of cele
nv has been stimulated in view of what
has been accomplished here.
Land, much of it heretofore consider
ed comparatively worthless, the home
of venomOus reptiles, noxious weeds,
swamp fever and malaria, has been
drained, brought under cultivation,
and converted into arabic fields and |
luxuriant celery gardens. While some
were available for pastnrage |
and meadows in dry seasons, yielding u
coarse marsh grass of inferior quality,
many large tracts that have been re-
claimed were but IL few years since wet
aud miry, almost impossible for either
men or animals and the idea of con-
verting these lands to any practical
use, would, not many years ago, have