The price per quart ranges from as low as four cents to as high as twenty-five. The prices previous to Thanksgiving are commonly low, but advance with the winter season till they reach their highest late in February or early in March. The average price is perhaps somewhere between ten and fourteen cents. One large grower found that an acre of early sprouts in 1908 brought a gross return of $400, the sprouts selling at fifteen to sixteen cents a quart. A return nearly as great is not uncommon with late sprouts.

The expense of producing an acre of sprouts is approximately as follows:

The sprouts grown at Orient are all hauled to Greenport (four to five miles), and shipped to New York by express. The express charge on a 32-quart crate is 35 cents, and 45 cents on a 48-quart

crate.

INSECTS AND DISEASES

These are the same as those which attack the cauliflower, and have already been dealt with in the preceding article.

SEED-GROWING

Selecting mother plants. Just before cutting the plants, or picking the bottom sprouts in case this is done before cutting, a

competent person should go through the field to select the seed plants. Two rows can be examined at a time, and the plants as selected can be pulled and thrown between the rows. Later the plants from four rows can be thrown into one, and left to lie until the crop is harvested or freezing is threatened. The person selecting the plants should have clearly in mind the ideal, and select only those which approach it much more closely than the average of the field. Among the most important characters to be sought are the following:

1. Hard, firm, medium-sized sprouts.

Close, compact arrangement around the stem, completely covering it from the ground well up to the head.

3. Medium height. Too tall a plant exposes the sprouts more to frost.

4. Small head or rosette at top.

5. Dark green color. Such plants are more resistant to frost. Storing the plants. When the advance of winter makes it necessary to protect the mother plants, they are trimmed by removing the lower leaves (the upper ones must be left to insure good growth the following season) and are placed in a shed, cellar or trench. Most growers now prefer a shed or barn, as cellars generally prove too warm, and trenches do not admit of easy examination, or the removal of decaying plants. The storage building must be sufficiently tight to prevent the plants freezing, for though a slightly frozen plant may produce a good seed stalk so long as the head of the plant is not frozen, its vitality is likely to be weakened, and the danger to the head itself is too great. On the other hand, it is very important to keep the plants from heating, for yellowing of leaves and decay quickly follow a mild temperature. Neither must the plants be allowed to grow. Ventilation must be provided for, and the doors and windows.opened whenever the outside temperature is above freezing.

The plants are best heeled-in in shallow trenches, setting a double row and leaving an interval of about ten inches between the double rows. This permits free circulation of air, and is much better than crowding all together in a compact mass, as when stacking to cover for the winter market. Occasionally a pail or two of water should be thrown over the plants to prevent too much drying of the soil. The plants should come out in the

spring as bright and green as when they went in, without any signs of yellowing.

Plants stored in cellars are troublesome to handle, because it is difficult to secure proper ventilation and control the temperature. The heat and moisture are likely to cause yellowing, if not downright decay. Such conditions also favor the white mold (Alternaria brassiae (Berk.) Sacc.) the most dreaded of all storage troubles. Once it has a foothold it destroys swiftly and surely. The sprouts near the base should be removed, for they usually rot if left, and sometimes cause the stump to rot.

Sheds with the floor about two feet below the surface of the ground are found to be desirable for storage. One grower has such a house 12 x 65 feet, the walls being insulated with a sixinch layer of seaweed. In setting the plants a path is left through the center. Since so many plants are handled, this grower does not take time to trim off any of the leaves, but finds it necessary to pick off the yellow leaves about the first of March, or earlier if the weather has been warm.

The plants can also be wintered in trenches. It is the practice to dig a trench a little wider than a spade, and deep enough so that the plants will come just flush with the ground when stood up in the trench. The plants are then packed in it in a double row, so that the trench is completely filled. No covering is put on at any time. One grower who recently stored about fifty plants this way brought only about half through to actual seed-bearing. Cold frames are also successfully used for storing.

Setting out. As soon as the ground can be prepared in the spring (usually from the first to the tenth of April) the plants are set out in rows about three and one-half feet apart, and about two and one-half feet apart in the row. The sprouts soon expand, and a few of the large ones near the base will produce flowering shoots, but the chief growth is made from the terminal bud. A tall, branching flower stem is thrown up from this bud, and the first mature seed pods appear in the latter part of July. The ripening is uneven over the field, and even on the same plant, so that no method of gathering is feasible other than picking by hand. The seed-stalks are clipped with small shears and crowded into a barrel which the picker carries along. This receptacle is a little cumbersome, but effectually prevents any waste by the in

evitable shelling out of the seed. The seed stalks are pressed and trod into the barrel until it can hold no more, and it may then be set aside until a convenient time for cleaning the seed, in case the stalks are very dry; but usually it is safer to remove the stalks from the barrel and dry them in the sun for a few days, spreading them on a blanket or canvas. The pods are then readily stripped from the stalks by drawing through the hand, and this same operation shells practically all the seed from the pods. The seed is readily shaken to the bottom on the blanket or in the barrel, and easily cleaned by pouring from a pail when a breeze is blowing. This seed is obtained a little too late for planting in the same season, and is used nearly a year later. Two-year-old seed is frequently used in event of the failure of the seed crop, for most growers retain enough annually to provide for such an emergency. The older seed germinates a little more slowly than the fresh, but is otherwise just as good, and the extra day or two is of no moment.

Under no circumstances would one of these growers resort to the ordinary stocks of seeds on the market, as these have been tried repeatedly in a small way, and always proved disappointing; the plants have usually been tall and vigorous, but with only a few soft, scattering sprouts, or none at all. The Long Island seed is immensely superior to the ordinary and undoubtedly the best in the country, if not in the world. It is apparently too high-priced for the dealer, bringing locally fifty to seventy-five cents an ounce, while the prevailing wholesale price elsewhere is about fifteen cents. It is scarcely necessary to add that the seed is easily worth the difference. It used to bring sixteen dollars a pound. One hundred plants will in good season produce ten to fifteen pounds. of seed, or at the rate of 500 to 750 pounds per acre.

CELERY

HENRY GREFFRATH, LIMA, N. Y.

President, New York State Vegetable Growers' Association

The demand for celery in this country is constantly increasing; but the increased acreage planted each year and the quality and condition in which celery is marketed, with present methods of distribution, fully meet the demand at the present time. I do not make this statement hoping to discourage any one from entering into the growing of celery, but I do wish to impress upon everyone thinking of entering the business, and those already engaged in it, that the future prosperity of this industry depends on the quality of the celery grown and the condition of it when marketed, as well as on the method of distribution.

The climatic conditions of this vast country of ours are not the same in all localities; therefore, one set of rules for the growing of celery can not be applied to all sections.

The writer has been engaged in the growing and shipping of celery for the past thirty years in New York State, and will try to give the public what he had found to be the best methods for this part of the country.

SELF BLANCHING IN GREATEST DEMAND

The celery in greatest demand at the present time is a variety known as Self Blanching although in some cities the Green Golden Heart type is used to some extent. Self Blanching is the handsomest celery, when properly grown, of all known types, but it is also more subject to disease than any of the other types and demands great care from the time the seed bed is started until the crop is placed before the consumer.