252 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



CELERY-GROWING BY SUB-IRRIGATION, NEAR 

 SANFORD, FLA. 



One of the principal reasons for my recent 

 trip was to look up and write up the new in- 

 dustry of celery and lettuce growing in dif- 

 ferent parts of Florida. That State is a land 

 of wonderful contrasts. Perhaps not one acre 

 in a thousand there is made any use of at all. 

 While stopping with a friend, he made a re- 

 mark to the effect that he had, the day before, 

 closed a deal for 1000 acres of land. I stopped 

 in surprise, and, looking at him, said : 



" Do you mean \.\ia.\.you have actually pur- 

 chased a thousand acres of land ? " 



"That is what I said, and I was thinking of 

 going out to look it over, or a part of it, for I 

 have not yet seen it myself." 



" Do you mind telling me about how much 

 an acre it cost you ? " 



" Well, probably the greater part of it cost 

 50 cts. an acre — some of it considerably more 

 than that." 



So you see it did not take very much money 

 after all to become the owner of a thousand 

 acres. I was still more astonished when I saw 

 land right adjoining the new purchase that 

 had had fine crops of sugar cane, corn, and 

 other Florida crops. It was dark sandy loam, 

 beautiful to work, and it seemed to me it 

 ought to be worth $40 or $50 an acre almost 

 anywhere. Well, right in this very region 

 were orange-groves which, before the frost, 

 could not have been bought for $1000 an acre, 

 and there is no reason in the world why this 

 same land, that was sold at 50 cts. an acre 

 might not soon be worth $1000 an acre pro- 

 viding the seasons in the future should finally 

 settle down something as they were before the 

 great freeze six years ago. Well, right where 

 the great yields of celery were made I am go- 

 ing to tell you about, and are being made, 

 there are lumdreds of deserted plantations. 

 Beautiful homes, or what were such but a few 

 years ago, yes, almost pri?icely residences, are 

 now going to ruin. The owners became dis- 

 couraged because of the freezes, and moved 

 away. For miles and miles in any direction 

 you can see only desolation and ruin. Now 

 for the other side. 



Six years ago I told you about the artesian 

 wells of Florida. All around Sanford, for 

 miles in almost any direction, one can get ar- 

 tesian water by going down from 50 to 150 

 feet. I saw four-inch pipes six years ago 

 pouring out a full stream. 



Well, these pipes have been running during 

 all the last six years, and I found them run- 

 ning just the same on my last visit. Nobody 

 even takes the pains to turn the valve and 

 shut off the water. When I spoke about the 

 supply being exhausted they stared at me in 

 astonishment. 



One of our first visits was to C. F. Williams, 

 of Sanford. Mr. W. commenced last summer 



by clearing off two acres of palmetto or ham- 

 mock land. There were so many palmetto 

 stumps, and they were so large, he could not 

 well burn them, so he bought some of the 

 cheap land adjoining his own, and tumbled 

 the rubbish over on to it. I spoke about bury- 

 ing the great stumps, as we do bouldeis here 

 in the North ; but he said when land cost only 

 from $2.50 to $5.00 an acre it was cheaper to 

 dump the rubbish on a piece of land bought 

 for the purpose than to waste time and money 

 in trying to bury it. The two acres were all 

 cleared off by hand work, or "grubbed out," 

 as they call it. This may have cost about $50- 

 an acre. Then open ditches were made all 

 around the outside, and at right angles 

 through the middle. In fact, these open 

 ditches were only two or three rods apart, if I 

 remember correctly, and they were in depth 

 something like 15 or 18 inches. An outlet 

 was secured so that the whole plantation could 

 be thoroughly drained so the ditches would be 

 dry enough to walk in. Of course, all ditches 

 must slope a little toward the outlet, and the 

 sides must be sloping enough (bottom flat), 

 so when soaking wet they don't cave in. 

 Now, with their black porous sandy loam, we 

 might think this was underdrainage enough. 

 Not so, however. Either tiles or wooden box- 

 es were put through these beds between the 

 open ditches, say every 10 or 12 feet. Some 

 people use tiles, and others use V-shaped 

 troughs, with the apex uppermost ; and these 

 tiles or wooden boxes were a little above the 

 bottom of the open ditches. The idea is, to 

 be able to let off every bit of water whenever 

 the soil shall become water-soaked by tremen- 

 dous rains or by artificial flooding, as I shall 

 explain. These tiles and wooden boxes also 

 serve to let air come in through the roots of 

 the celery-plants. 



Now, at some point in the garden — perhaps 

 right in the center — a four-inch iron pipe is 

 driven down until it will run out full ot water. 

 I think a four-inch stream will irrigate two 

 acres easily. Thus, you see, whenever there 

 is a lack of rain, or the light soil becomes too 

 dry, the valve of the four-inch pipe is opened, 

 the outlet to the open ditches closed up, and 

 the whole plantation allowed to fill up with 

 water until it rises by capillary attraction so 

 the celery-plants are sufficiently watered. The 

 common way of bleaching is with boards. 

 Some growers plant the celery in a single 

 row, say 2'2 feet apart. Others have a double 

 row, the plants standing only about 6 inches 

 from each other. At the proper stage of 

 growth one-foot cypress boards are put up at 

 each side in the usual way. Now, Mr. Wil- 

 liams has got on to "the new celery culture." 

 Instead of one row or two rows he plants 

 seven roivs of celery side by side, so the plants 

 are only six inches apart from center to 

 center. Then boards are put each side 

 of these seven rows. The plants are then 

 made to grow with such rank luxuriance that 

 they bleach each other. Considerable quan- 

 tities of stable manure are used first. I was 

 riot able to determine just how much. The 

 plants are coaxed, not only by water, alter- 

 nating with perfect drainage, but by constant 



