FEBRUARY 1, 1915 



goveruiupnt, and two are in the aviation school here. 

 I see them flying ahnost every day. 



There are many i)oor people out here, thinking 

 there would be work in connection with the exposi- 

 tion, while there is none. There are thousands of 

 men out of work, waiting for the exposition to begin, 

 with Christmas near, and nothing to eat or drink. 

 Many of them came from San Francisco, where they 

 could not get work either. 



I enjoyed my last trip down to Virginia on the 

 box car, even more than my first trip. We had an 



129 



oil-stove in the car, and cooked our meals. It was 

 pretty cold nights, but we had plenty of bedding 

 and newspapers under our mattress, and so we didn't 

 suffer with the cold. When we got the bees to the 

 new location I made a camp and built a " shack," 

 and we had a fine time for a week while we were 

 getting the bees arranged. I also put up a fence 

 across one side of the apiary to keep the hogs out. 

 I love to live outdoors that way, because I feel 

 licalthier, and always have a big appetite. 



San Diego, Cal., Dec. 21. Howabd R. Calveet. 



MIGH = PEESSUME GARDENING 



POTATO-GROWING IN FLORIDA, ETC. 



Last April I told you about my nice Red 

 Triumph potatoes, and gave you some pic- 

 tures. Well, on this New Year's day, 1915, 

 it would be my delight to take the readers 

 of Gleanings through our Florida garden. 

 We have had the largest amount of rain 

 down here ever recorded in November and 

 December ; and had I not learned by experi- 

 ence we could not have gotten rid of the 

 ■ wetness. Last April I told you how we 

 buried the palmetto and underbrush, even 

 when it was over our heads, and how we 

 threw our whole garden up into narrow 

 beds with deep walks between the beds. As 

 our gi'ound has a gentle slope toward the 

 canal it was an easy matter to have all the 

 water get away speedily down to the canal. 

 In our book on potato culture I said we 

 wanted, even in Ohio, both under drains and 

 surface drains; and down here it is most 

 emphatically true. When three or four 

 inches of rain comes down in one day or 

 night, the tile drains are too slow. In re- 

 gard to the width of these beds our finest 

 potatoes are where a ten-foot bed takes just 

 three rows of potatoes — one in the middle 

 and one three feet away (or a little less) 

 on each side. Now, we don't want deep 

 furrows between the rows of potatoes. It 

 will work like wagon tracks in the highway, 

 and the surface of the bed needs to be 

 crowning, exactly like a nice roadbed or 

 more so. It wants to be so the water will go 

 off into the paths as quickly as possible, 

 instead of running down hill between the 

 rows of potatoes. Terry says in the ABC 

 of Potato Culture that at one stage of the 

 growing potatoes he had often wished he 

 had a balloon to pull the cultivator so as 

 to avoid the tramping of the horses' feet 

 in the mellow soil. In that same book, in 

 describing potalo-growing on Jersey Island, 

 :;e author says these people have the rich 

 gi'ound worked up so mellow a man can 

 push his hand stpeight down to the elbow. 



Well, Wesley and I have our dark sandy 

 loam worked up in just about that way; 



and now comes my "discovery " of a way to 

 grow potatoes, or to cultivate them at least, 

 without setting a foot on the soft mellow 

 soil, especially when it is pretty well soaked 

 with water. With my light sharp hoe I can 

 work up the ground beautifully without set- 

 ting a foot on the soft mellow soil, and I 

 can break the crust and let in the air and 

 sunshine when it is so wet it would be very 

 bad policy to tramp between the rows. 

 "Lots of work," do you say? Well, it is; 

 but it is work that I enjoy more than I can 

 tell you, and it is work that a man 75 or 

 over can do when he isn't " much good " for 

 any thing else; and, besides, I grow nicer 

 potatoes than any one else around here has 

 ever seen, and they go off quickly at a 

 bigger price when displayed in our Braden- 

 town groceries. Fertilizers? These extra- 

 fine potatoes grow where we had a poultry 

 yard several years. It is a piece of ground 

 that has always been " 'most too damp and 

 springy" for a garden; but with the tile 

 drains and deep paths it just suits Triumph 

 potatoes. Strawberries, corn, beans, etc., 

 grow nicely in the damp mucky part of our 

 garden. Sweet potatoes gi-ow too much to 

 vines; but on a dry sandy spot of poorer 

 ground they give not only many more tubers 

 but of much better quality. 



UNRULY COWS, GARDENS, ETC. 



Until recently cows have been permitted 

 to " hold high carnival " on our streets 

 nights; but since we have begnn to call 

 ourselves a " city," and have a daily paper, 

 our marshal has begun putting the cows in 

 the " pound," or at least some of them that 

 had become " experts " in hooking gates 

 open, etc., and it has made quite a little 

 jangle. With this preface I submit a clip- 

 ping from our Bradentown Eveniwj Jour- 

 nal: 



Editor Journal: — A good friend a few weeks ago 

 fold how hard it was to be fined and worried just 

 because his cow happened to get through the fence, 

 etc. Please let me "narrate" a little. 



Last winter I was testing some choice sweet com; 

 and after a good deal of " nursing " and protecting, 



