Boards are used for summer blanching, as they are less heating than soil. Ordinary lumber, free from knot holes, is employed. The boards rest on their edges, one board on each side of the row, the tops being drawn together until within 2-1/2 inches of each other, and the lower edge of the board held in place either by stakes or by soil. The work of handling or hilling must be done only when the celery is dry and unfrozen. In fact, celery must never be handled when wet (except when preparing it for market), or it will surely be rusted and spoiled. The same practices of blanching celery as here mentioned in connection with the Kalamazoo operations are in vogue near Philadelphia and other Eastern cities, and are not new. The real reason that Kalamazoo is so celebrated is her possession of that wonderful black muck soil, underlaid with standing water. This has attracted the best celery growers of the country; men who have small places of from one to three acres, and who work out every detail to perfection, employing little labor outside of their own families and concentrating their efforts on the production of perfect celery crops. There are extensive celery growers at Kalamazoo, with tracts of thirty or more acres devoted exclusively to this vegetable, but the majority of the gardens there are small, and much hand-work is done. =Winter Storage.=--The art of the winter storage of celery, as practiced by large growers, is not hard to learn. Both at Kalamazoo and here in the Eastern States there are two methods in vogue. One is the use of especially-built houses, and the other is the open-field plan. [Illustration: Blanching Celery with Boards.] [Illustration: Winter Queen, the Best Late Winter Keeping Celery.] The celery house or "coop" is a low frame structure, half under ground, generally 14 or 16 feet wide, and as long as may be desired. There is a door in one end and a window in the other. The sides, ends and roof are double and filled with sawdust. There are wooden chimneys or ventilators at intervals of 12 feet along the peak of the roof, and sometimes there are glass windows in the roof, provided with wooden shutters. The celery stands upon the floor, which is of loose soil. There is a narrow walk lengthwise in the middle of the building, and boards extending from the central walk to the side walls separate the packed celery into narrow sections. No earth is placed between the celery stalks as they stand. They are, in fact, rooted in the soil of the floor, and are thus able to make the slight growth demanded for complete blanching. The various doors, windows and ventilators make it possible to keep the air fresh and wholesome, and during cold weather a stove may afford heat to the storage room. Artificial heat is not commonly required.