1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



511 



pet Jersey cow you wish to have love you, 

 and give you a good quantity of rich milk, 

 give her a good feed of sweet clover at milk- 

 ing time ; but too heavy feeding with it will 

 give the milk a peculiar flavor. 

 Descanso, Cal.,Dec. 5. E P. St. John. 



HOMLS 



byA.I.ROOT 



And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be 

 fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and 

 subdue it.— Gen. 1 :28. 



Please notice the above is what God said in 

 the beginning of the human family. The very 

 /rr.si command God ever gave to humanity 

 was to be fruitful, and multiply; and a reason 

 for it is given in almost the same breath, that 

 we may sxihdue the earth. Just now in this 

 year of 1908 we are subduing the earth in one 

 sense, and may God be praised for it. But 

 this Home paper is not to be a temperance 

 talk, but rather a talk on "high-pressure gar- 

 dening." Do you ask what our text has to do 

 with gardening, etc.? Well, I think I can 

 show you. A few days ago I saw in one of the 

 Cleveland dailies a notice of the arrival of 

 the first car of Florida celery, and that it had 

 sold readily for quite a good price. About 

 the same time, Mr. Rood remarked that a 

 man near us was offered §5000 for his crop 

 of celery, about ready to harvest, on only 

 five acres of ground. As it was less than 

 two miles from our home I sprang on my 

 wheel and proceeded to investigate. 



By the way, I do once in a while go back 

 and "get astride" of my hobbies of former 

 years. My wheel has only recently been 

 shipped from the old "cabin home" (cabin 

 in the woods No. 1), and I started off with 

 my old enthusiasm for wheeling, and soon 

 found that there is a "second wind" down 

 here in Florida equal to any in the world. I 

 was soon out in the wilderness, and had to 

 inquire my way. Two colored boys and a 

 white one were sawing wood. 



Now, I want to stop right here to consider 

 the tremendous difference in specimens of 

 humanity. In this region I have been much 

 impressed with the numbers of bright well- 

 informed people. Yes, I have mentioned 

 the good behavior and the well-educated con- 

 dition of the colored people around here. 



Now for my illustration: Not one of the 

 three young men I met had ever heard of 

 "Lattimer's celery- farm, " while it was less 

 than one-fourth mile from where they were 

 at work. A fourth colored man, a little 

 further along, told me to open the first big 

 gate on the left-hand side and follow the 

 well-traveled road and I would soon see the 

 celery. The two photographs which will ap- 

 pear in the next issue of Gleanings will 



give you a faint glimpse of the vision that 

 suddenly burst on my (enraptured?) view. 

 Let me explain a little. 



At that time we were in the midst of a se- 

 vere drouth. The morning was hot, and aft- 

 er I left the town there was little to be seen 

 except the dry dusty wilderness. Every 

 thing looked dead and dried up; and if you 

 didn't know better you might be tempted to 

 say none of the land was worth more than 

 $5.00 an acre. Well, imagine my surprise to 

 see, all at once, a field of celery that eclipsed 

 any thing I ever saw before in Florida or 

 anywhere else. 



A short time ago Manatee Co, cut a drain- 

 age-ditch through this locality that permitted 

 draining a number of ponds, or swamps, and 

 this was one of them. After the water was 

 let off into the big ditch the next thing was 

 to get water to put back on the ground dur- 

 ing a dry time. As the garden was in a 

 slight depression it was all spread out before 

 me, as I stood on a little higher ground. I 

 got a drink of water at one of the two arte- 

 sian wells, and soon found a very bright 

 young man of eighteen who regretted that 

 his father, Mr. C. L. Lattimer, was just then 

 away, but he kindly gave me the following 

 points: 



Mr. Lattimer, as nearly as I can remember, 

 commenced work here in the woods just 

 about a year ago last January, so that the 

 wild land has been "subdued" (see text) 

 and this wonderful crop grown in only a lit- 

 tle over a year. Most astounding of all, the 

 father had had no experience with celery be- 

 fore this time, and was not even an experi- 

 enced gardener, and had had no experience 

 in gardening or even farming in Florida. 



As the boy gave me the facts I said: 



"Why, my young friend, this is almost in- 

 credible. Your father must have suddenly 

 developed a craze for celery-growing, and 

 done a deal of studying." 



"You can bet your life he did. We all of 

 us studied it up, and we have just worked 

 like beavers in clearing up the land and get- 

 ting it ready." 



"'All of us?' How many children has 

 your father?" 



"Eight— four boys and four girls." 



There you have it, friends. Mr. Lattimer 

 has obeyed that first command that God gave 

 humanity, and the loving Father has reward- 

 ed him. 



Young Lattimer informed me further that 

 such land can be bought for about $50 or $75 

 per acre, and that clearing it up and getting 

 it ready for celery will cost about as much 

 more. They have never yet used as much 

 as a ton of fertilizer to the acre, costing 

 about $40 per ton. 



The two artesian wells cost something like 

 $600 each. As nearly as 1 could gather, the 

 entire outlay of cash has been much less than 

 half of what he has been offered for the very 

 first crop. 



As fast as the celery is gathered and ship- 

 ped tomatoes are put right on the ground, so 

 the land is idle hardly a single day. The 

 tomato-plants are grown in shaded beds 



