1901 



glp:anings in bee culture. 



253 



stirrii g of the soil ; and, furthertnore, the 

 most siimulating fertilizers are applied at ev- 

 ery stuge of the growth until the plants fill 

 the entire space so that no implement can get 

 between them. Then they are pushed by wa- 

 ter and drainage. 



The fertilizer most used at this garden was 

 bought of Wilson & Toomer, Jacksonville, 

 Fla. They call it Peruvian vegetable manure. 

 Mr. Williams said it was the next thing to 

 Peruvian guano. The cost of fertilizers for an 

 acre of celerj', or at least the cost to him, as 

 he figured it, was $150, perhaps more. Lots of 

 work, and lots of money, you say. Yes, my 

 friends, there is no high-pressure gardening 

 without money and work. Now for the re- 

 sult. 



I saw one of these beds containing 350 sq. 

 feet where the crop had just been harvested, 

 and shipped to New York. I suppose the 

 owner of the garden was as much surprised as 

 anybody to receive a check for $.39.00. This 

 amount was above the freight, mind you, for 

 the celery grown on 350 square feet. He said 

 one of his friends figured up that the yield 

 was at the rate of $5000 per acre. He had 

 been too busy to do the figuring — in fact, did 

 not care particularly about it. Now, the ques- 

 tion that has come up thousands of times be- 

 fore faced me once more. I looked at this 

 energetic young gardener and said, " Mr. Wil- 

 liams, is it possible for you to manage a whole 

 acre (of course hiring all the help you need) 

 so as to make a result something like this lit- 

 tle bed which you have here, of less than two 

 square rods ? " 



He smiled as he replied, " Mr. Root, that is 

 the question I am asking myself. Just come 

 this way and see what I am doing along that 

 line." 



To my great joy and surprise he showed me 

 a bed, 7 rows wide, perhaps 12 rods long, near- 

 ly ready to be banked up, with every plant a 

 model one, and just like its neighbor. Nest 

 to this bed was one with plants a little small- 

 er, then another with plants smaller still, and 

 so on down, step by step. He had evidently 

 ■tried to put not only just the same amount 

 of fertilizer but the same amount of brains on 

 every square foot that he did with his first ex- 

 periment. The astonishing thing about it 

 was there were no poor spots or small or in- 

 different plants, and I found by questioning 

 that he had sorted his plants, and graded 

 them, before putting them out. All of one 

 size were put in a certain bed ; then if a plant, 

 or a dozen or two of them, got to lagging be- 

 hind he took them up and put better ones in 

 their places, thus insisting on a perfect, even 

 stand. 



Now, then, why in the world do not the 

 poor people in Florida, and everywhere else, 

 get a little bit of ground, say half an acre, and 

 go to work and do what I have been describ- 

 ing? I was tempted to say it is because they 

 actually can not do it, but I think I had bet- 

 ter say it is because they will not. As I write 

 I am looking out on a piece of low rich ground 

 that is generally too wet, and I have been 

 wondering whether even I myself have the 

 grit and determination to do what I saw that 



young man do down there in Floiida. Von 

 see, human nature has such a constant ten- 

 dency to backslide, and go down hill, theie is 

 only one in a housand or one in ten thousand 

 who will be up and on the alert Xo push things 

 in the way I have described. 



Now, this wonderful revelation — and that is 

 just what it was to me — does not apply to cel- 

 ery alone. Wonderful crops of lettuce are 

 grown in just the same way, or in much the 

 same way, and I do not know but it brings al- 

 most as much money ; and thousands of other 

 crops can be grown, getting more from an 

 acre than ordinarily grows on ten acres — yes, 

 getting as much from a single acre on high- 

 pressure gardening as thousands of farmers 

 get from a hunch ed acres. 



Florida has the advantage of us in having 

 this artesian water, without stint or limit. 

 Then there are no frosts, that I know of, that 

 interfere with celery. The crop needs no cov- 

 ering. I forgot to say the variety grown is 

 the Golden Self-blanching, known now all 

 over the world. 



Now, I hope you will all go to work and 

 make a trial of at least a few rods by sub- 

 irrigation. You can certainly get enough wa- 

 ter to fill up the open ditches when it does not 

 rain enough ; and when you get something 

 extra nice, may be I will get around to look it 

 over. 



The question naturally comes up, " Why 

 these open ditches instead of good-sized tiles?" 

 Well, as nearly as I can understand it the 

 open ditches are to enable you to see when the 

 plants have water enough, and to be sure they 

 do not get too much. I am under the im- 

 pression they give better drainage and better 

 aeration than any other plan. In our most 

 expensive greenhouses I notice they are plac- 

 ing tiles under all the beds only three or four 

 feet apart, letting them reach over into the 

 paths, so that in case anybody does overwater 

 any sort of stuff, the water immediately runs 

 away and thus we avoid danger from standing 

 water. 



The plan I have given above succeeds. I 

 should be afraid to try some other way until I 

 knew by experiment that it is just as good as 

 the one I have given. The great secret is 

 feeding the plants from the very beginning to 

 the end. Old well-rotted stable manure has 

 always been our cheapest and most effective 

 fertilizer. But please remember that, if you 

 are going to get a crop worth $25 or more to 

 the square rod, you must hunt up the very 

 best and most concentrated fertilizer that can 

 possibly be found, suitable for the particular 

 crop in your own locality, and apply it without 

 stint. 



Mr. H. H. Chappell has also about two acres 

 adjoining the above, almost if not quite as 

 good as I have described. He was not at 

 home at the time, but his good wife showed 

 us around, and answered our many questions. 

 There are similar enterprises scattered off for 

 miles in every direction. Not man" of them, 

 however, are up to such a standard of excel- 

 lence as the one I have just described. In fact, 

 I am sorry to say some are only making sad 

 failures. 



