The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-12-15
CELERY IN GEORGIA
The Remarkable Success of
One Grower.
Or. Walker Explains His Method, Which Brings
Him in $500 for Third
of An Acre.

with unvarylng success. am Tree 10 al
nit that | have made a number of dis
NAL failures with this crop myself, and
that / chronicle the success of my friend
Dr. Walker.
1t is true the doctor has only a small
patch, one third Of an acre in extent;
bu. this one third of an acre of celery
will bring him in over $500. / was out at
his place on Saturday, November 16, and
on that one day he sold in Atlanta $50. %
worth of celery. Cephula & Co., one OF
the largest dealers in vegetables in the
city, had telegraphed to Kalamazoo to
stop shipments of celery to them from
that point until further notice, and they
will handle the Doctors celery until the
supply is exhausted.
The accompanying illustration shows a
bunch of one dozen stalks of this celery,
for which the doctor is receiving Is cents.
He punches the largest stalks together,
twelve in bunch, at this price; and for
the smaller ones he receives so cents per
bunch, making an average of about so
cents. This would make the gross re-
ceipts from one acre amount to $1,24S
With figures like these one can afford to
go to considerable expense and trouble in
the production of this crop, and / for one
shall try it again on the doctors plan
the coming season. DR.. Walker talked
very freely about his method and seemed
glad to give any information in his pow
er on the subject.
'In the first place." said he, 1.-The prop
er variety to plant is of great Importance,
some varieties being more hardy than
others and more easily bleached. Alto
gether / have found the White Plume to
be the most satisfactory. 1t is a strong
grower, not subject to rust, and is very
easy to bleach / planted my seed this
year about the middle of June and had
plants ready to set out by the first of
September. That celery you see out there
has grown in seventy days from the time
the plants were set. Another year, how
ever 1 shall plant my seed about a
month earlier so as to have the plants
ready to set in August. My celery would
have been third larger than it is if it
had had another month in which to grow,
and next year l shall plant my seed
in May instead of June.
GROWING THE PLANTS.
Il have found it best to grow the plants
less likely to be attacked by rust. there
fore erected a shelter for that purpose, 40
feet square and about feet high. This
/ covered with boards about a foot apart,
which gave me the necessary shade.
Yes, brush could be used for this pur-
pose, and would doubtless be cheaper for
many, but l had no brush, and so used
boards.
H. r
feet wide, making the soil very rich and
fine. / then planted my seed in rows
across these beds about 3 inches apart,
and thinned the plants to 1 inch in the
row. Celery seed are very fine and should
therefore be sown rather thiokly, as they
help each other to come up. The seed
should be sown on top of the ground in
marks made across the bed to indicate
the rows. They should then be trampled
in with the feet; not covered with dirt,
except as this. trampling presses them into
the soil. then water the bed thorough
ly and cover with sacks until the seed
sprout. / have my beds arranged so that
in dry time the paths between the beds
may be filed with water. This gives a
kind of sub-irrigation which forces the
plants forward very rapidly. My seed
the first of September my plants were
ready to set in the field. They grow so
fast in the bed that found it necessary
to stop some of them il order to make
them stocky.'
FIELD CULTURE.
Now, tell me, doctor, how you man
aged to make your celery grow so fast
after it was set in the field?
WELL he replied, ''in the first place
you must know that my land was very
rich to start with My celery was grown
on land from which l had sold crop Of
early cabbage this year, and the cabbage
had been MANFRED very heavily. The lard
is bottom and of rather stiff loan in
character. 1t will not do TO plant celery
on sandy land, as on such ground the
stalks are liable to be hollow and pithy.
eve plowed this land after the cab
bage were off several times, and got it
into frst-class shape; tnen we laid off
our rows Az feet apart and bedded out
the land with one-nC.Se turn pillow,
blowing out the water o: center furrow
as deeply as possible. In This trench we
applied well-rotted stable manure very
heavily. l suppose We put AT least $1E
worth of manure on the one fourth of an
acre, besides 200 pounds Of high-grade
guano, applying it all in the Grill. This
we stirred into the soil by running sew
eral times to the row with a scooter. In
this row we set out plants inches apart.
We then turned our irrigating water into
the row behind us, thoroughly saturating
the ground around the plants. This is all
the direct irrigating my celery had; but
the ground was kept damp at all times by
my system of sub-irrigation.
The doctors system of suh-irrigation
has been described in a former article in
The Constitution. 1t consists of bitches
2 feet deep running across his field on
a level. These ditches are kept ABOUT
half full of water during dry weather,
and as his soil is somewhat porous the
water soaks through and keeps the land
between the bitches damp, furnishing all
the water necessary TO growing crops.
"And how about the cultiyation?" was
my next question.
well, the principal part OF the cul-
tivation in my case has been the draw
ing of earth to the plants. They have
grown so fast it has kept us busy along
this line. At the second cultivation we
began earthing the plants with hoe.
The dirt was kept plowed toward the