298 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



HEGH=PEE§§UEE GAEDENING 



OUR FLORIDA GARDEN, ETC. 



A few days ago a representative of our 

 Bradentown Evening Daily paid us a visit. 

 He pretty soon took out his notebook and 

 pencil and tried to take down the names of 

 some of the new plants from the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture; but when he came to 

 Jabotica caba, feijoa, etc., he gave it up. I 

 have left out some, and made slight modifi- 

 cations where he did not quite catch my 

 huii'ied talk. 



" NEVERSWEAT " FARMER BUILDS SCAFFOLD TO 

 SUPPORT FINE FRUIT. 



A. I. ROOT MAKES PILLOWS FOR PAPAYA " APPLES " 

 LARGE AS WATERMELONS TO REST UPON ; COLLECTS 

 DASHEENS FROM MANY LANDS ; MAN WHO KNOWS 

 ALL ABOUT BEES TAKES DELIGHT IN TESTING POS- 

 SIBILITIES OF FLORIDA SOIL AND CLIMATE, AND IN 

 PROPAGATION OF FANCY AND USEFUL NOVELTIES. 



A. I. Root who maintains a winter liome on Rich- 

 land Avenue, who knows more about bees than any 

 other person in this "neck of the woods" (and 

 probably more than any one else in the world), is 

 the champion neversweat farmer in this part of the 

 earth. Indeed, the man of large affairs, wlio delights 

 in spending his winters in Florida, is so enthusiastic 

 in the matter of his farming operations that he can 

 scarcely take time from his wonderfully interesting 

 garden to make the trip to the postoffice or to the 

 corner grocery with dasheens and duck eggs with 

 which to pay the family grocery bill. 



" About forty years ago," Mr. Root said at the 

 home yesterday, " I became interested in the study 

 of bees. Some folks said that I was mad on the 

 subject of bees," he remarked with a smile, in re- 

 membering and relating the conditions of so many 

 years ago; "but when I discovered and demon- 

 strated that I could take a barrel of honey in a 

 season from a single colony of bees my critics were 

 forced to admit that at least there was method in 

 my madness." 



It would be a difficult matter to find one in any 

 station of life who is apparently happier in his work 

 than is llr. Root in his. In the beautiful garden 

 which is a part of the splendid homestead in the 

 southwest part of the city the owner takes special 

 delight in collecting rare and possibly promising 

 specimens of fruit and vegetables from all over the 

 world, and it is frequently his pleasure to enjoy the 

 juicy freshness of some new variety that cost him 

 several dollars a pound. He enjoys this novel ex- 

 perience with the same relish that he does the dash- 

 eens which he takes from hills producing half a 

 bushel to the plant. It is all the same to him. He 

 is a philanthropist in his work to the extent of seek- 

 ing to propagate varieties of fruit and vegetables 

 which will prove valuable for general cultivation in 

 addition to the varieties which he cultivates purely 

 as novelties. 



In his collection of dasheens there are varieties 

 from South Africa, from South America, and other 

 tropical lands. He sees in these a valuable crop 

 whose cultivation and uses should be more generally 

 understood and appreciated. Every part of the plant 

 is edible — not only edible but exceedingly desirable 

 as a food, Mr. Root says. The tubers are better than 

 potatoes, he believes, as a food, and he likes them, 

 baked, twice a day. The stalks are fine and tender, 

 and pleasant to the taste as asparagus, a real luxury 

 of the North, and the leaves are equal in desirability 

 to the best of spinach greens. 



Mr. Root's specimens of the dasheens from South 



Africa and South .Vmerioa are gifts from mission- 

 aries who were his friends, and are prized because 

 of their associations. 



In the wonderful garden which constitutes a 

 revelation to the northern visitor who is unfamiliar 

 with the marvelous possibilities of Florida soil, a 

 specimen of the Papaya carrissa flourishes. Mis- 

 sourians call it pawpaw, although the paw^jaw of 

 the Missouri bottoms is quite different from the fruit 

 in Mr. Root's garden. The odd and even unusual 

 thing about Mr. Root's papaya-tree is that he has 

 scaffolding constructed all about its body like the 

 scaffolding about a house in course of construction. 



This work does not constitute a device for saving 

 the tree, but is a support for the fruit, of which there 

 are eight or ten specimens, some of which are be- 

 ginning to ripen. They are so large that it is nec- 

 essary to build the support about the tree to hold 

 crossbeams upon which the fruit rests, on padded 

 cushions. 



Mr. Root is cultivating a large number of trees 

 which are rare and almost unknown in America, 

 whose names can be spelled only through the diligent 

 aid of the most classical works on botany. He has 

 rainbow corn, one of Burbank's novelties, and spec- 

 imens of his spineless cactus, growing close to the 

 old-fashioned peas and beans like those which grew 

 in grandma's garden, and the Irish potatoes, the real 

 thing in " Murphies," in which the winter resident 

 rejoices. 



While Mr. Root enjoys working with his own 

 hands in the development of his Florida property he 

 keeps a man who devotes his time to the care of the 

 premises and the cultivation of the various crops 

 produced there, including a splendid yard of chick- 

 ens and pens of Indian Runner ducks. He has 

 invented his own arrangement for baffling the efforts 

 of the woods rats to rob his poultry. A galvanized 

 tub set on the stump of a tree provides a unique 

 feeding-trough for the chickens, and a tub planted 

 in the soil and filled with water, in which grain is 

 cast, furnishes an ideal feeding-trough for the ducks, 

 and is rat-proof. 



While the matter of profit is not a consideration 

 with the farmer who loves to revel in the splendors 

 of the Florida winter, it nevertheless is a source of 

 satisfaction to him to know his products, many of 

 them, even when grown in an experimental way, are 

 produced at a profit. 



Mr. Root likes Florida so well that he would like 

 to remain here the year rouud; but Mrs. Root re- 

 members five sons and daughters, all married and 

 living in separate homes, and within talking distance 

 of the old homestead in Medina, Ohio, which is their 

 home town. 



There is a bevy of grandchildren, also living in 

 the homes about the old homestead; and soon after 

 the annual migration of the wild birds she insists on 

 moving Ijack where she can be near her treasures. 



HELIAKTI, THE NEW FLOWERING PLANT AND 

 VEGETABLE, ETC. 



Last May one of our readers sent me 

 a circular in regard to this plant, and in 

 our issue for May 15 I severely criticised 

 the Burgess Seed Co., who sent out the 

 "glowing" circulars; but in the June issue 

 I gave notice that the above seed company 

 procured the seed and circulars from a 

 prominent seedsman. The Burgess Co. also 

 kindly sent me a few tubers for trial. In 



