238 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



trate another point that I have long had in 

 mind ; and that is, that people coming down 

 here from the North, and thinking that 

 they can help out in the garden or fields, 

 and earn fair wages — say wages comparing 

 favorably with our expert colored men — 

 such people are usually greatly mistaken 

 in their estimate of their own powers. Now, 

 here is the important feature. First, get 

 the very best seed you can buy. Mr. Rood 

 has been buying seed from several great 

 seedsmen of the North for years ; and, as a 

 rule, when he pays the price for their very 

 best seed — say $15 or $20 a pound for the 

 kind of celery seed that is sown here in 

 Florida — he is pretty sure of a fair grade 

 of seed. I asked him if he had any objec- 

 tions to my giving the names of the seeds- 

 men who furnished him his seed. He re- 

 plied something like this : " Mr. Root, the 

 man or seedsman who furnished me the 

 best celery seed a year ago may not be 

 able to furnish some equally good this year, 

 and vice versa; but I will tell you what we 

 do. When the little plants in the seed-bed 

 have got big enough to distinguish clearly 

 between the true and the green or worthless 

 plants, we have expert colored men go 

 through the seed-beds and weed out all of 

 these objectionable plants. In that way, 

 even if our seed is comparatively bad we 

 can get almost a perfect stand of the genu- 

 ine French Golden Self-blanching celery. 



Now, here comes in the point I am speak- 

 ing of. A year ago a Avhite man came down 

 from the North and applied for work in 

 the gardens. He supi:)0sed, of course, that 

 he could do any thing that the colored men 

 did about as well as and perhaps a little 

 better than what they did. So Mr. Rood 

 set him to work, after explaining carefully 

 what was to be done in weeding out the ob- 

 jectionable celery-plants. The man worked. 

 I believe, one day or a part of a day, and 

 perhaps was disappointed in regard to the 

 amount of pay he received. Mr. Rood said 

 he would have saved fully $10.00 if he had 

 let the experienced colored men stick to 

 their job instead of giving this man a 

 chance to work in the garden even a part 

 of a day. Therefore, take great care, not 

 only in regard to the seed you sow, but in 

 regard to the plants you set out in the field 

 after they are grown in the seed-bed. 



Most of the celery seed used in this re- 

 gion is imported from France. I asked Mr. 

 Rood if it wasn't possible for us to grow 

 as good seed here in America as they get 

 imported. He said that so far it didn't 

 seem possible to get as good seed grown 

 here, although California has given us some 

 celery seed that compares well with the best 



French imported. Since then I notice our 

 new seed catalog's advertise California seed, 

 and declare it is as free as any of the 

 French from the worthless green sports. 



Since dictating the above I have inter- 

 A-iewed my neighbor, Mr. Keller. Let me 

 explain a little. Mr. Keller had not been 

 as successful a celery-gTower as my neigh- 

 bor Rood and some others. During the past 

 summer, however, he spent quite a little 

 time and money in getting proper tiles and 

 thoroughlj' underdraining his piece of about 

 two acres ; and the result is, he has had very 

 much better success than he has ever had 

 heretofore. Even our Florida sand needs 

 thorough underdraining to get the best re- 

 sults, especially after such an extremely wet 

 season as we had in 1912. Well, he sold his 

 celery for $2.40 a box. As nearly as we 

 could figure it, he got about $1200 for the 

 celery on a single acre; but I suggested 

 that he had to pay freight out of this, and 

 he said, " Not at all." A New York man 

 came and looked at his celery, and made 

 him an offer and j^aid him spot cash right 

 there on the gi'ound at $2.40 a box. When 

 I asked about the fertilizer, he said that 

 the fertilizer cost him perhaps a little over 

 $100 an acre. But what does this amount 

 to when the crop is sold right on the ground 

 for $1200? 



My neighbor Rood is just now harvesting 

 the finest crop of celery he ever grew. He. 

 also, most thoroughly underdrained his land 

 before he commenced growing celery; and 

 the quality of his celery is considerably 

 ahead of that of neighbor Keller, and he 

 probabl}' gets better prices than those men- 

 tioned. He said that he applied about three 

 tons per acre of a fertilizer that cost about 

 $40.00 a ton; but I think some of his land 

 would give a yield of very close to $2000 

 per acre. 



Let me digress right here to answer a 

 great number of inquiries as to how much 

 a man can make to come down here and 

 grow celery, grapefruit, etc. Now, I can't 

 answer such questions. And I might safe- 

 ly say the man who asks it will rarely be 

 able to make any great result. It takes a 

 practiced expert to grow celeiy ; and I think 

 likely it takes a practical expert to grow 

 grapefruit also; and these men who have 

 learned the knack usually make a good 

 thing of it year after year; but it doesn't 

 follow at all that a green hand, or some- 

 body who has failed in almost every thing 

 else, can come down here and " get rich " 

 growing stuff in Floiida. Let me give you 

 an illustration. 



Another neighbor, who is fairly success- 

 ful with tiTJck gardening, last year did so 



