Feb. 15. 1912 



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103 



BEES, POULTRY, AND TRUCK-GARDENING IN 

 FLORIDA. 



BY FRANK M. BALDWIN. 



My experience last October may help 

 the readers of Gleanings to form a better 

 judgment of this part of our great country. 

 I came into this section in .June to do some 

 ])reaching; found surveying also, and have 

 been here most of the summer. After 

 l)reaching Sunday at Palmetto I took an 

 early train Monday to inspect se\enty-f]ve 

 colonies of bees on the edge of the A])opka 

 Marsh, in Orange County, that Mr. W. S. 

 Blaisdell had ollered for sale. Mr. B. is old 

 and infirm, and wants to convert his apiary 

 into cash. 



He was awaiting my coming at Gainsboro 

 Station, and soon we were journeying be- 

 hind his mule, toward his home, three miles 

 away on the banks of the canal that was 

 made for the purpose of draining the 50,000 

 acres composing the big marsh. This tract 

 is rich sawgrass land, similar to the Ever- 

 glades. The elTort to reclaim it was not suc- 

 cessful. The canal must be dug deeper and 

 wider. Darkness overtook us just as we ar- 

 rived at the house, and on this account the 

 examination of the bees had to be postjwned 

 until Tuesday. 



INSPECTION OF THE BEES. 



The morning's inspection revealed a fine 

 healthy lot of bees in old and worn-out 

 hives. The style and sizes are original with 

 their owner, and have given him the best 

 results. He makes them from native lum- 

 ber, much of it undressed. They have serv- 

 ed him well for seventeen years, but are no 

 longer strong enough to withstand three 

 miles of jolting in wagons over rough roads 

 to be followed by 150 miles in a freight car. 

 The thought of buying and taking them to 

 Parish was reluctantly abandoned. They 

 were strong in bees and brood, in just the 

 right condition to gather the honey-llow 

 from goldenrod and myrtles. Mr. B. ex- 

 l)ected to extract three tons of superior hon- 

 ey from them within the next sixty days. 

 He usually gets two croi)s — one from saw- 

 palmetto in the early summer, the other in 

 the fall. Last fall the marsh was too wet, 

 and he got no surplus. This year conditions 

 are more favorable than usual, and he hopes 

 to make up in some measure for the failure 

 of the palmetto in May and .Tune. He is 

 not near enough to any groves to get the 

 benefit of the orange-bloom in February. It 

 is only once in seventeen years that the two 

 Hows have failed him, and I believe he has 

 ne\ er had to feed his bees. 



Mr. Blaisdell took me down to see the old 

 drainage canal. On the banks I met and 

 talked with >rr. Belamy and his son, who 

 are making a living from four acres of extra 

 good truck land, and are salting something 

 down in the bank. They use no fertilizer 



and grow no celery. All other Florida ^ ege- 

 tables are planted by them and sold at a lo- 

 cal market. They rarely ship north, 'i'hree 

 small towns within twelve miles of their 

 patch take all they produce. 



Mr. Blaisdell has 27 acres of rich land that 

 his bees have paid for; and his neighbors 

 say his industrious insects have paid for the 

 fertilizer and labor he has wasted in his at- 

 tempts to grow and market vegetables. 

 Here was a convincing illustration of the 

 truth that one must find out what he can 

 do best, and devote himself to that. Truck- 

 ers and bee-keepers are born rather than 

 made. 



truck-farming. 



At noon the train was again boarded. 

 This time the destination was Sanford and 

 the fall meeting of the Presbytery of St. 

 .John. While there Mr. and Mrs. Rosetter 

 entertained me with true Southern hospi- 

 tality. Mr. R. has a truck-farm of 40 acres, 

 three miles in the country, which he and 

 his son operate. lie lives in town and the 

 son on the farm, though both of them spend 

 all the daylight hours in the field with their 

 hands. Six helpers are employed all the 

 year, and in the busy season as many as 

 forty are at work. I^ettuce and celery are 

 the principal crops, and the seed which was 

 sown in the beds several weeks ago is now 

 up. The former will soon be transplanted 

 into land which is now being carefully pre- 

 pared for it. 



Early Thursday I went with Mr. R. to the 

 farm and enjoyed a two-hours' inspection of 

 the seed-beds and the well-tilled ground. 

 The seed-beds are more than half a mile in 

 aggregate length, and are tended with great 

 care. Lettuce requires ninety days from 

 the time of planting until ready for the mar- 

 ket; and celery about six months' time and 

 labor. Beans, potatoes, etc., follow. Then 

 corn is planted. This year this — the third 

 crop on the land — yielded more than fifty 

 bushels to the acre. This intensive farm- 

 ing calls for a ton of fertilizer to the acre. 



There are ten artesian wells on the land, 

 and rows of small tile have been laid 20 feet 

 apart and 18 inches deep to use their water 

 in sub-irrigation. Four thousand dollars' 

 worth of boards for blanching celery are 

 stacked up in great piles near the ihany 

 buildings. These last, together with the 

 .many wells, tile, and other improvements, 

 have called for an outlay of $28,000, over 

 and above the cost of the land (a rather 

 large investment on forty acres) . When, as 

 in 1909, the crop brings less than it costs to 

 raise it, the feeling must be rather bitter. 

 I3ut they do well most years. Once they 

 netted $12,400 from 16 acres. 



The Sanford Board of Trade, to show what 

 is being done in this favored region, took the 

 l*resbytery for a launch ride across Lake 

 Worth Wednesday afternoon, and for an 

 auto ride among the celery-farms Thursday. 



