324 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



Now, I am not prepared to say positively that 

 the sprinkling will not ward off an ordinary 

 frost during a clear night; but during a freeze 

 such as I have described, without any real frost, 

 the sprinkling was a positive damage rather than 

 a benefit. 



About fourteen years ago I called on one of 

 the first men to start celery-growing in Florida. 

 He had a little piece of black muck swamp down 

 close to the Manatee River, where a little spring 

 came out of the side of a hill. It was almost 

 right in town, and this bog or swampy place had 

 always been an eyesore to the town. He grub- 

 bed out the bushes, put in some tiles, and went 

 to growing some celery. When I called on him 

 he was almost too busy getting his little crop off 

 by express to take time to talk. I wrote it up at 

 the time In Gleanings, and predicted wonderful 

 possibilities in that direction. Well, a few days 

 ago I met this same man again. He has one of 

 the finest celery-gardens, or farms, perhaps, in 

 Florida. He has been growing celery ever since, 

 and is now one of the most successful celery- 

 growers in that State. He showed me where he 

 had just taken 1000 boxes from a single acre, and 

 the average price received was, I think, a net 

 price of $2.00 a box — $2000 from a single acre! 

 If I am correct he told me he thought the total 

 expense of growing that acre did not very much 

 exceed $100. But he was right there on hand ev- 

 ery minute to look after things. As an illustra- 

 tion, many of the celery gardens or swamps, as I 

 think we may call them, in Florida, are so near 

 the level of the ocean that during excessive rains 

 it is a problem to get the rain water out of the 

 way. Hundreds of people have been swamped 

 by these excessive rains, and have thereby lost 

 their crops. Now, Mr. Gates is not that sort of 

 man. This very acre I have been telling you 

 about would have been lost at one time had he 

 not devised a home-made outfit to get water out 

 of his crop. He rigged up something that looked 

 like an overshot waterwheel — awheel with buck- 

 ets all around it. Then he arranged this so that 

 it could be made to revolve by means of an or- 

 dinary horse-power. By the help of two stout 

 horses he lifted that rain water enough so that it 

 could run away, and he got it off soon enough 

 to save his crop. There you have a sample of the 

 enterprise and energy of S. C. Gates, Manatee, 



I believe the celery seed is generally sown in 

 August or September. It is grown in plant-beds 

 and then transplanted. Well, our good friend 

 Lattimer, whom I wrote up last May, was foolish 

 enough to put his plant-beds so low down that he 

 had not drainage enough, and so his first lot of 

 plants were drowned out by a heavy rain. Down 

 in Florida, once in a while they have a shower. 

 Up north we think an inch of rainfall in 24 hours 

 is a rather large dose; but, if I am correct, last 

 fall in some places in Florida they had four inch- 

 es in one night; so you see the gardener who ex- 

 pects to make a success must not only be sure to 

 have water at hand when it is needed, but he 

 must be equally sure of facilities either to let the 

 water out of the way or to get it out of the way. 

 One of the wonderful things about a great part 

 of Florida is that artesian wells can be had any- 

 where by boring deep enough. Just before I 

 left, my neighbor Rood put down a well 490 

 feet deep on the highest spot on his land. This 



well, at the time I left, was throwing out a stream 

 of water from a six-inch iron pipe at the rate of 

 something over 100 gallons a minute. Just im- 

 agine a stream of water rolling up out of an iron 

 pipe at the rate of something over 100 gallons a 

 minute, the pipe being almost as large as a stove- 

 pipe, and the stream spreading out like an um- 

 brella, as clear as crystal, and then running off 

 into the ditches. When I spoke of shutting off 

 the water so as not to have it waste, they inform- 

 ed me that a well is seriously injured by check- 

 ing the flow. In order to have it keep up and do 

 its best it must be permitted to run full head, and 

 yet the supply never gives out. No matter how 

 many wells you may put down, and not much 

 difference how near together, one well does not 

 seem to have any influence over the surrounding 

 ones. Artesian water is all right for celery; and 

 my opinion is just now, that running water 

 through the furrows gives rather better results 

 than the overhead sprinkling. I have been told 

 that the artesian water is not suitable for the 

 sprinkling system, inasmuch as it fills up and 

 clogs the pipes with something like asbestos. 

 This may not be true in all localities. The 

 sprinkling system I have mentioned got its sup- 

 ply of water by pumping with a gasoline-engine 

 from shallow wells. The artesian water is pretty 

 strongly impregnated with sulphur, especially 

 when it first comes to the surface; and I believe 

 it is considered objectionable for some crops un- 

 less it is run in tiles under the ground by sub-ir- 

 rigation. On Teraceia Island they are success- 

 fully making tiles of cement to carry water un- 

 der ground. Cement pipes are made right in the 

 ditches. In this way there are no overhead pipes 

 nor any thing else in the way of cultivation. 



In closing^I think I may safely say this: There 

 arewonderful opportunities in Southwest Florida 

 in the way of high-pressure gardening. Men 

 who have the necessary push and judgment to 

 manage things become well-to-do in a short time. 

 A man with little capital, who really loves the 

 work, and who will study the conditions in Flor- 

 ida, can make a living and lay up something for 

 a rainy day. But while this is all true, there are 

 many people who do not do it. The hot weath- 

 er that we have occasionally sometimes for several 

 days in succession is somewhat enervating, I 

 must admit; but I think we all feel better when 

 we get to work than if we sit down in the shade 

 and get lazy. So far as health is concerned, I 

 believe I have seen fewer sick people in Florida 

 than almost anywhere else, and at the same time 

 great numbers of people go to Florida on account 

 of their health, as I have said before; and it need 

 cost one but very little if any more to live in 

 Florida than in the North, especially if he adopts 

 the simple diet that is now becoming so popular 

 (at least I hope it is) everywhere. 



May God be praised for a land like ours that 

 offers such priviliges — especially the privilege of 

 going to a region like Florida when one is get- 

 ting old, or is ailing, during the severe winters 

 that we have here in the Northern States. 



Another near neighbor of mine received just 

 about $1000 for his lettuce on two acres. I do 

 not know how much the "refuse" lettuce is 

 worth for feeding to poultry; but where you 

 have fowls enough to consume it all I would es- 

 timate that it is worth at least $10.00 per acre. 



