494 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15. 



has spread so lavishly around this little home. 

 But beautiful shrubs, plants, and grassy lawns 

 were to be seen almost everywhere. And then 

 a little gem of a drive went down through the 

 wild tangled woods, and led along by a tiny 

 lake, where the wavelets of pure crystal water 

 rippled up against the soft clean sandy beach. 



Two or three times I have been inclined to 

 say that, so far as producing great crops is con- 

 cerned, Florida is away behind the North; and 

 1 have heard others say that, without vast 

 quantities of manure or expensive fertilizer, 

 you can not raise a thing. Nosv, wait a bit. 

 Friend Stacey pointed to a large grape-fruit 

 tree standing at one corner of the porch, and 

 IncidenLally remarked that he received S'DO for 

 one single crop from that tree. I sprang to my 

 feet ih surprise. 8aid 1: 



"Now, friend Stacey, I have been greatly 

 puzzled about this matter of fertilizing orange- 

 trees, grapefruit, limes, etc. What fertilizer, 

 and how much, did you put ai'ound this tree?" 



•• Didn't put a bii of fertilizer of any kind 

 around it. neither that year nor any other year." 



•' But, my dear friend, you certainly did give 

 it some extra cultivation of some kind." 



"Didn't give it any sort of culiivation, nei- 

 ther that year nor any other year. It just stood 

 there and ' grew itself.' " 



I walked around the tree, looked it over, ask- 

 ed how old it was, etc. Now, friends, when 

 you hear people talk about Florida soil, and 

 that there won't any thing grow down there, 

 and that you can't get any money for your 

 crop, just remember what 1 have told you, and 

 take a look at the preceding picture. 



Please remember, also, there were not any 

 freights nor commissions to be taken out of the 

 $90. Our friend got the ^90 in cash for the 

 fruit, right in his own dooryard. There is a 

 part of this conversation that 1 once decided I 

 would not tell anybody; but since several have 

 complained about my extravagant stories in 

 regard to Florida, I think 1 will tell it after all. 

 Friend Stacey said that a neighbor of his got 

 $150 for the crop of ii nil frou} one single tree. 

 You get a few glimpses of the house where our 

 good friends live. Now, right near by friend 

 Stacey's is a cypress swamp, and the most 

 beautiful cypress-trees are now being cut and 

 taken to a sawmill near by. This straight tine 

 cypress lumber is the kind used for greenhouse 

 timbers, you know — rafters, etc. Well, friend 

 S. actually "whittled out" his dwellinghouse 

 from this cypress timber. He split out the 

 boards and the shingles, and built a pretty 

 home before sawmills were ever brought into 

 that region. He is also quite a gardener. He 

 is testing laihyrus and many of the other new 

 plants. Almost everywhere in Florida they 

 say they can not raise peas; but friend Stacey 

 tells me he had a tine crop of Alaska peas, and 

 they were picked before Christmas. The prin- 

 cipal fertilizers used in his vicinity are cotton- 

 seed meal and sulphate of potash. This was 

 all that was needed to get crops of almost every 

 thing in that locality. Of course, they are bee- 

 keepers, but the locality has not ever given any 

 very great crops of honey. 



A Northerner is often greatly puzzled, and 

 sometimes smiles right out loud, at the queer 

 names and expressions used in Florida. For 

 instance, a piece of light-wood means a black- 

 ened knot of pitch pine, almost as heavy as 

 cast iron. A beautiful plump-looking bird is 

 called a "poor Joe;" and the live-oaks that 

 flourish in Florida are about the same as those 

 I have several times described in California. 

 Now you can understand the following which 

 Florida folks sometimes repeat, to the perplexi- 

 ty of their northern visitors: "You take a 

 chunk of heavy light-wood and throw it at a 



fat poor Joe sitting on the limb of a dead live- 

 oak." This is almost as bad as the expression, 

 " Blackberries are always green when they are 

 red." 



Friend Stacey and his wife have some won- 

 derful collections of minerals. In the vicinity 

 of Tampa, along the shores of Tampa Bay, 

 they find queer minerals called geodes. and 

 chalcedony. The geode is a peculiar flinty 

 quariz-like stone that is hollow inside, and tilled 

 wiih water. The crystallization, both on the 

 outside and inside, reminds one of beautiful 

 frostwork. How did the hollow come inside of 

 the flinty stone? and, finally, how did this hol- 

 low come to be partially filled with water? 

 The quartz is so transparent that, by holding it 

 up to the light, you can see the water and the 

 bubble of air that partly tills the cavity. 



Thou shalt not covet.— Ex. 20 : IT. 



On page 416, May 15, 1 spoke of a shell mound 

 near iriend King's. As we approached the ex- 

 cavation made by the railroad company in dig- 

 ging out the shells, friend K. was explaining 

 10 me that the excavating and throwing the 

 shells on to the cars was generally all done by 

 colored men. As we neared the scene of oper- 

 ations we noticed the men were not at work. 

 Friend King asked a colored man the reason, 

 and he replied that "yesterday was payday." 

 After he was out of hearing I inquired why 

 they could not work, even if yesterday was 

 pay-day. The answer was: 



" Why, after these people get their pay they 

 will not work any more until they get rid of 

 their money. In a few minutes we shall prob- 

 ably see the sad way in which they manage to 

 get relieved of their funds before they can go to 

 work again." 



Kighi there was being enacted the sad scene 

 right before our eyes. A sort of table or work- 

 bench was placed in the shade of a tree. The 

 men were all gathered around it; and so intent 

 were they on their gambling that they hardly 

 noticed that strangers were looking on at all. 

 There was one rude hut or building in the 

 camp, and a forlorn-looking woman was there 

 to cook and prepare their meals. 



•' But how long does this gambling last, 

 friend King ? 1 suppose the dull ones, of course, 

 in the game, or perhaps the most conscientious 

 of the lot, will lose their money first, and drop 

 out. In this way the circle draws down nar- 

 rower and narrower until there are finally 

 only two contestants, and in the end one man, 

 the worst villain in the lot, probably, pockets 

 all the money the rest have earned during the 

 days and weeks that are past." 



My companion turned around and looked at 

 me, perhaps in a little surprise that I should 

 know how these people managed when I was so 

 little acquainted with them. I went on: 



" But doesn't the final ending-up of the game 

 result in quarrels and tights?" 



" That is just the way it does end, Mr. Root; 

 and the one who gets the money from all the 

 rest has to run off, a good many times, to escape 

 their anger. Of course, there is more or less 

 cheating and sharp practicing, as there always 

 is in this work, and bloodshed is not unusual at 

 the winding-up." 



Now, dear reader, this kind of work goes on 

 and on in this land of ours so full of Sunday- 



