1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



B)» 



High-pressure Gardening 



By A. 1. PiOuT 



ANOTHER OF MY •'HAPPY SURPRISES; THE 

 NORTHEY' BLACKBERRY. 



Just once in my life I was called on to 

 take the place of a lecturer belonging to a 

 lecture bureau. My talk was on "happy 

 surprises." I said I had been meeting all 

 my life long with hapijy surprises, and I 

 expected to find them, even down to old age. 

 or as long as God permits me to live. I 

 said, furthermore, that every follower of the 

 IjOrd Jesus Christ had a right to expect once 

 in a while a "happy surprise." It was years 

 ago that I gave that talk, and I have thought 

 of it a good deal since. If you wish to enjoy 

 having happy surprises, you must not ex- 

 pect too much. You must not expect too 

 much of ]ioor, infirm, imjierfecl humanity. 

 You must not expect too much of new lo- 

 calities — Florida, for instance. You must 

 not expect too much when you venture into 

 agriculture, fruit-growing, and raising chick- 

 ens, for instance. Make up your mind to be 

 satisfied with srnaU rewards: and when a big 

 reward does come you will have your happy 

 surprise. You must not expect too much of 

 yourself. Do not get the big head. \Vhen 

 you get up in the morning and plan what 

 you are going to exploit during the day, do 

 hot make your calculations too high. Some- 

 thing is always going to happen that you do 

 not plan for. Remember the words of the 

 dear Master when he said, "Let him that 

 would be greatest among you be your ser- 

 vant." Start out for a lowly place and for 

 lowly tilings in this world; then when you 

 are called on to "stej) uj) higher" you will 

 not only ap])reciate it, but you will be better 

 fitted to fill the station right. 



After this long preamble I wish to tell you 

 something that was indeed a very happy 

 surprise. My neighbor Ten Broek is, like 

 myself, an elderly man, and on account of 

 old age. principally, he is not taking the 

 care of his five acres of land over the fence 

 from my own that he took in former years. 

 At different times he has planted different 

 kinds of tropical fruits on his premises; but 

 as he does not raise stuff to sell, or to only a 

 very limited extent, so long as he has plenty 

 for his own use and to give to his neighbors 

 when they call on him he does not care much 

 about getting great crops. To come right 

 down to it, his place is mostly overgrown 

 with brambles and weeds; and I supjiose if 

 he likes to have it that way his neighbors 

 should not object. 



^Vell, I noticed several times along about 

 the middle of April some very large black- 

 berries or dewberries, perhai)s you would 

 call them, as it is a trailing bush, scattered 

 in different places over his premises. One 

 day I happened to turn aside from the path 

 not very far from his front door, and I dis- 

 covered something that made me raise both 



hands and sav, "Praise (Jod, from whom 

 all blessings llow." I llioughl at first ihai 

 it was this same trailing blackberry; but 

 from the few that were just getting ripe I 

 decided it was something else, for they were 

 red instead of being blacic when fully ripe — 

 a most beautiful glittering tleej) vermilion 

 red. And that was not all. AVhen I came 

 to test one that was fully ripe and mellow 1 

 said it was certainly the most delicious fruit 

 of any sort that ever ])assed my lips. Now, 

 that is not all. This new jilant or berry, for 

 it certainly was new to me, covered a space 

 perhaps as large as a good-sized dining-table. 

 It was rounded up in the center perhaps two 

 feel high — a beautiful oval mound, and this 

 oval mound was, a few days later, a i)erfect 

 mass of the most gorgeous and beautiful 

 fruit I ever saw on any fruit-bearing i)lant. 

 Now, that is saying a good deal, friends, for 

 I have seen choice specimens of fruit-bear- 

 ing trees and bushes pretty nearly over all 

 the I'nited States. When I came awa\ 

 from our Florida home, April Ui. the great 

 mound of berries was glittering and spark- 

 ling with the gorgeous fruit all over that 

 mound; and. as if to set it off with a border, 

 little plants had started out like the rays of 

 a star in all directions; and these little ])iants 

 were rilxo glittering with beautiful fruit. 

 Mr. Ten Broek did not seem to think very 

 much about it, for he was accustomed to 

 such sights. I called the neighbors in, right 

 and left, and made myself at home in his 

 berry-patch until I began to fear he might 

 feel I was trespassing; but my good friend 

 Ten Broek (and he has been my friend for 

 many a long year, for he took (ileanings 

 before he ever saw me), when I began to 

 apologize for taking so much liberty, said 

 to me and the friends I had brought along 

 with me, " You need not be troubleti. neigh- 

 Ijors. My good friend Root has full permis- 

 sion to help himself to ( veri/ tiling, and tlo 

 etny thing \\e (ihoo^i^a to on my premises." 

 At this there was a big laugh. But I took 

 advantage of the invitation, and diel help 

 myself to those wonderful berries. Oh. dear 

 me! if John Lewis Childs should see what I 

 have written above, and go down there and 

 see theit " wonderberry," what would he not 

 do with it? AYell, I started to tell you that, 

 for fear this berry might be poison, like the 

 nightshade, and do tiarm to humanity, I 

 thought I would give it a good test, and so 

 I ate and ede of these ruby blackberries un- 

 til I certainly would have been injured if 

 they would injure anybody. But they just 

 made me feel good and happy. 



\Vhen I asked neighbor Ten Broek what 

 kind of cultivation he gave them he said he 

 never gave them any cultivation at all. He 

 bought one plant at Reasoner Brothers' nur- 

 sery, Oneco. Fla., four years ago, and it bore 

 some fruit right away; more the next year, 

 more the year after, and so on until the pres- 

 ent season. He gave it no cultivation whett- 

 ever. It just spread out, took root, and man- 

 aged every thing after its own sweet will. 

 After I learned where he got the plants I 

 told Mr. Reasoner he had better come and 



