Junk, 1918 



GLEANIISGS IN BEE CULTURE 



373 



I weti , the less caiii'iue of frost appeared. Durins; 

 tlie last few miles overytliing was green, even to 

 eggplants, peppers, and other tender plants. Here 

 we entered a very fair imitation of a tropical coun- 

 try, with it avocado pears, its pineapples, guavas, 

 etc., all green and uninjured by frost. The hotel 

 grounds on th« canal are certainly beautiful with 

 their great variety of tropical plants and trees. 

 Besides those mentioned above were the royal palms, 

 Australian pine, fig trees, rubber trees, traveler's 

 palm, eucalyjtti, and many others. Peaches were 

 forming, and sonic pineapples were still on the 

 plants. 



The story of the trip would not be complete with- 

 out relating our experience with alligators. The 

 first one I saw was about 4% feet long, lying asleep 

 on the ground; and as it started to run into its 

 hole I caught it by the tail. Another man placed 

 in its mouth a stick which it seized in a viselike 

 grip and in this way we caiTied the creature out of 

 the swamp to where the rest of thei party were. We 

 thought to keep it alive, but finally decided to kill 

 it. A native showed us just how to strike it an 

 effective blow. This proved to be lucky knowledge 

 later when a large alligator, nearly eight feet long, 

 was found in the road, having been run over by the 

 front wheels of a car. We were out of the car at 

 once and aftea- him. I picked up a spade and soon 

 overtook him, when he turned for fight. He was 

 indeed a formidable-looking antagonist, standing 

 straight up on all four legs, back arched and head 

 held low, while his powerful tail slashed viciously 

 thru the air. A sudden dash and a quick strong 

 blow, which went true, brought him to the ground, 

 when I killed him after a lively tussle. We then 

 roped him to the car and dragged him home. 



Leon C. Wheeler. 



Bradentown, Fla., Feb. 15, 1918. 



Since the above article was written the 

 railroad has been completed, and I am told 

 it is doing quite a business, especially in 

 carrying- the crops away. The Florida pa- 

 pers every week or oftener are telling us 

 of the wonderful things being done at 

 Moore Haven — a gTeat hotel for one thing, 

 find other important buildings. In regard 

 to getting great crops without fertilizer or 

 cultivation, I confess I was at first a little 

 skeptical about it but since then I hear 

 from different sources that it is at least 

 largely true. No doubt there are draw- 

 backs to the locality that, for various rea- 

 sons, are not mentioned; but we shall get 

 them eventually. With the present demand 

 for everything that will satisfy hunger, no 

 doubt tliere are wonderful opportunities 

 in this new region that is just being open- 

 ed up. 



SWEET CLOVER AND WHAT IT DID, FOR 10 

 ACRES OF CORX. 



We clip the following from an article in 

 The Ohio Farmer of March 23, written by 

 E. Simmonds, Hamilton County, 0. : 

 (Where are the chaps now, who stubbornly 

 insisted sweet clover would " ruin the 

 farm"?) 



irIMMONDS PLOWS DOWN SWEET CLOVER. 



" By growing 65 bushels of corn to the acre I 

 had been winning the Farmers' Week trip from 

 Hamilton Coainty in a local contest," says Mr. 



Simmonds, wlio has lieen a corn specialist for 37 

 yi ars. " My land," he continues, " is a sandy 

 loam on a second bottom slope and, of course, 

 originally fertile; but due to 100 years' continuous 

 cropping the yields were slowly decreasing each 

 year. 



" I followed the 1915 corn crop with rye; sweet 

 clover was sown the next spring and a crop cut 

 for hay following the rye harvest. About 10 acres 

 had been sown to sweet clover, 200 pounds of fer- 

 tilizer being used on the soil at the time of the rj'e 

 planting. In the spring of 1917 I decided to use 

 the 10 acres for the state contest. The season was 

 late and not a furrow was turned until May 17 

 when the sweet clover was at least 24 inches high. 

 With a good job of plowing^ I turned it completely 

 under and planted the plot on May 22. 



" Two weeks later the sweet clover turned under 

 was almost completely rotted and the corn was 

 growing rapidly. The corn grew so fast that I only 

 got over it twice with a sulky cultivator, and a 

 wet season later on prevented further working 

 with a single-row cultivator. 



" riie land which received no clover crop produc 

 ed its average yield of 60 bushels; but the 10-acre 

 plot went over the l.OOO-bu^hel mark, matured 

 earlier and stood up better." 



Simmonds grows Boone County "WHiite from a 

 strain which he has been developing for a number 

 of years. He selects seed from the standing corn. 

 The 10-acre plot was drilled with graded seed, 

 a grain being dropped every 15 inches. 



The above is indeed a wonderful testi- 

 monial of the possibilities in regard to 

 sweet clover, but in Tlie Ohio Farmer for 

 April 7 we find the following from the same 

 writer. (Think of it! Corn at a cost of 

 19c a bushel, when it is quoted on the mar- 

 ket at $1.75 or over!) 



COST 01 PRODUCING CORN. 



In your paper of April 6, H. C. Bothwell takes 

 issue M-ith me on my being able in 1917 to produce 

 corn at 19 cents per bnsliel. As Mr. Bothwell is not 

 the only gentleman who doubts the correctness of 

 my figures, I am sending to you herewith detai'ed 

 explanation of my costs. 



As this corn was raised in a contest under the 

 auspices of the Ohio State University a record sheet 

 wa/s furnished us to be used for keeping our eix- 

 pcnse acrount, in which the pi ices were specified — 

 15 cents per hour for man labor and 10 cents per 

 hour for horse labor. 



Before I give my tabulated account, permit me 

 to state that on May 16, 1917, I plowed under a 

 sweet clover sod and not a weed showed itse'f in 

 my field; I also had a perfect stand of corn, ard had 

 no occasion therefore to use a hoe. 



On another page of this same Ohio 

 Farmer, L. L. Rummell, Ohio Experiment 

 Station, commenting on the above, says : 



Sweet clover turned under was the only plant 

 i> od supplied to the crop of Mr. Simmonds. He 

 regarded the fertilizing elements carried in the 

 legume sufficient to meet the needs of a heavy corn 

 crop following, and he applied no manure nor ferti- 

 lizer. 



Later: I find in the Ohio Farmer for 

 May 11, four different letters from (as J 

 take it) expert farmers, in regard to corn 

 at a cost of only 19e a bushel. They insist 

 it should be two or three times that figure, 

 but, it I am right, not one of the four plow- 

 ed under a hea\'y growth of sweet clover. 



