CELERY, a biennial or annual herb (Apissan graveolens) of the family Apiacea. It is a native of Europe, Asia and Africa, in the older civilized parts of which it was cul tivated prior to the Christian era. In nature the plants are commonly found in moist ground, where they attain a height of from 6 to 15 inches. They have numerous leaf-stalks, odd pinnate leaves and branching, leafy flower stalks two to three feet tall, bearing many small umbels of small white flowers which give place to small seeds (fruits). Cultivated celery ',does not differ in general characteristics from the wild plant, but by cultivation its leaf stalks (the part desired for the table) have been made more solid, less stringy and more agreeably flavored. In many instances, too, they have been lengthened or increased in number and made to form more compact plants. Celery is :usually blanched and eaten raw with salt, but 'often it is used as a cooked vegetable, and its leaves, roots or ground seeds are frequently used for flavoring. Celeriac or turnip-rooted •celery is largely grown in Europe, but little in America. It does not require blanching, but is otherwise cultivated like celery.
Celery is usually started in unheated beds and the young plants set out in the field when a few inches tall, after being transplanted once or sometimes twice. The soil best suited to the plant is a rich, friable, peaty loam well sup plied with moisture, but well drained. As the plant is a gross feeder abundant manure must be given. Celery will, however, do well in any moist, rich garden soil. In one method of grow ing, the plants are set about six inches apart in rows spaced from three to four feet, and the ground is kept loose and free from weeds by frequent cultivation, the plants being gradually covered with earth, or °earthed up,'' as they approach edible size, or they may be blanched by shading the stems with boards, straw, etc. In another method they are set closer together in the rows, which are rarely more than 12 inches apart. The size of the variety is a governing factor in the matter of distances; some varieties grow only 12 to 15 inches tall, others more than two and a half feet. In this anew celery culture') no earthing-up is peces sary, as the plants blanch themselves. Summer celery is blanched quickly by the former method; autumn and winter celery more slowly. Indeed, the process is frequently continued in the winter storing quarters, which usually con sist of specially constructed houses or cellars, the floors of which are covered with a few inches of earth, in which the roots obtain some food and water.
Celery is frequently attacked by parasitic diseases, but most of its insect enemies are controlled by parasites and rarely become troublesome enough to demand special atten tion. The chief fungous parasites are sun scald or rust (Cercospora apii), which appears upon the leaves as yellow or gray blotches which enlarge and gradually destroy the whole leaf. It is more frequent on plants grown in dry soils. Leaf-blight (Septoria petroselini spit) appears on the leaves and stems as watery spots which become dotted with black spores. These parasites may be controlled by spraying with a standard fungicide (q.v.). Several other parasites are occasionally troublesome, but they can usually be similarly controlled.
In the United States the celery industry de veloped enormously during the closing quarter of the 19th century. From being restricted to the individual gardens and fields of market gardeners who grew it as one of their ordinary crops, it has in many localities become a special ized business, with machinery adapted . to its particular needs. And from demanding only part of the time of the market gardener it now occupies the attention of hundreds of men in certain districts. In Michigan, California, Florida and New York there are thousands of acres devoted to this crop, and from some of these districts hundreds of carloads of celery (even trainloads from California) are sent to Chicago, Saint Louis, Kansas City, New York, Boston, Philadelphia and other large distributing centres. Instead of having celery as a delicacy for a few weeks during autumn and winter, American tables are supplied throughout the year with this vegetable, which has risen to the rank of a necessity, a development due mainly to improvements in the management of the crop, but partly to improved transportation and storage methods.
In medicine celery enjoys a certain popular reputation by reason of the apiol which it contains. This has an action similar to that of many of the volatile oils, but in addition it dilates the blood vessels, particularly of the pelvic viscera, and is, therefore, useful in dis orders of menstruation, in chronic constipation and disordered intestinal states in general. It is also diaphoretic and diuretic.
Consult Greiner, 'Celery for Profit' ; Van Bochove,