774 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15 



CAULIFLOWER AS A HONEY-PLANT. 



A Glimpse of the Only Spot in the United States 



where Cauliflower Seed is Raised by Field 



Culture. 



This photograph shows part of a six-acre field in 

 full bloom, with the men just tying them up to stakes, 

 and one man watering with 3-inch cotton hose, with 

 your humble servant watching the Italians just 

 swarming over the bloom. It's one of the best honey- 

 plants that ever grew out of the earth. I have grown 

 ngwort and other honey- plants recommended by A. I. 

 Root several years ago, but none could compare with 

 the cauliflower-blossoms to produce honey. I have 

 covered up a plant in the afternoon, and found the 

 next morning the little cups just running over with 

 thin honey, and the large lower leaves completely 

 wet with the nectar. The field has the appearance of 

 half a dozen swarms in the air at once, or a good 

 smart start at robbing. The honey is a light amber in 

 color, and of a most delicious flavor. So you see I 

 raise two crops the same season — a crop of No. 1 

 honey and a crop of cauliflower seed. 



Fidalgo, Wash. H. A. March. 



In addition to what friend March has said, 

 permit me to say that the whole plantation, 

 and especially the glimpse of our good friend 

 March himself, gives me a thrill as I think of 

 my pleasant visit to Puget Sound a few T years 

 ago. I suppose our readers will be astonished 

 (with myself) to know that cauliflower grows 

 up tall, and sends out branches like a tree, as 

 seen in the engraving. At the right of the 

 picture, in the background, you get a glimpse 

 of the home-made reservoir constructed by 

 friend March himself. This reservoir is kept 

 full by a beautiful spring. I have told the 

 story once before, but I think it will bear tell- 

 ing again. 



Friend March had just begun to make some 

 money at market-gardening, quite a good 

 many years ago, and his neighbor looked on 

 and became jealous of friend M.'s success. If 

 I am correct, the neighbor lives over in that 

 house by the w 7 oods, off to the left in the pic- 

 ture. Well, the spring that furnished the wa- 

 ter for irrigating the cauliflower-fields was on 

 this neighbor's land, and he turned it off an- 

 other way, cutting off the water supply. I 

 suppose that, by going to law, friend March 

 could have claimed the water that originally 

 ran over on his premises. But he is a peace- 

 able man, and thought he would rather waste 

 a little money in digging into the side-hill 

 along his side of the division fence than to 

 quarrel with a neighbor. So he set his boys 

 at work digging a ditch along the fence in the 

 background, that runs uphill into the woods. 

 They found a little water, but not enough for 

 his needs. Then he told them to keep on dig- 

 ging, and go down pretty deep. They worked 

 at it by odd spells until they got down into the 

 hill perhaps six or eight feet deep, and may be 

 more. I know it is an awfully deep ditch. 

 One day our old friend came along by his res- 

 ervoir, and saw a big stream of water coming 

 down the ditch. He supposed the boys had 

 dammed it up to keep it out of the way, and 



had just let it loose. He was just thinking to 

 himself, ' ' Now, I would give a clean thousand 

 dollars to have such a stream of water as that 

 right along all through the summer. " But he 

 dismissed the thought, thinking it among the 

 impossibilities, when he was startled by hear- 

 ing the boys yell ; and, looking up, he saw 

 them swinging their hats. It was no letting- 

 off of the dam, but a permanent stream ; and 

 the funny thing about it was that, in tapping 

 this big stream, they cut off the neighbor's 

 supply entirely, and left him, as it were, " high 

 and dry." Well, I suspect there might have 

 been a chance for a lawsuit on the other side 

 of the house ; but friend March very gracious- 

 ly divided the stream and gave the neighbor 

 all he wanted of it ; and that stream of water 

 seems to be running even now. 



The cotton hose friend March alludes to, 

 and which is now in use more or less all over 

 the world, was first planned years ago by our 

 veteran grower of cabbage and cauliflower seed. 



I am very glad indeed we have been enabled 

 to get such a beautiful picture of this unique 

 seed-growing farm. If I am correct, there is 

 not another spot in America, and perhaps not 

 in the world, with a long even-tempered sea- 

 son, supplying just what is wanted for the pro- 

 duction of the very best strains of cauliflower 

 and cabbage seed. If it were not such an aw- 

 ful distance up to Puget Sound I do not know 

 but I should have started, on receipt of the 

 above picture, to see the golden Italians hum- 

 ming over the blossoms of the Snowball cauli- 

 flower seed. By the way, cauliflower needs 

 lots of water almost every day in the year. 

 The peculiar damp climate of Puget Sound 

 furnishes it naturally in the winter time ; but 

 during the summer they often have quite se- 

 vere drouths, and nothing but such a spring 

 of pure soft water would carry the seed- grow- 

 ing industry clear through the season wathout 

 any hindrance from drouth. 



Now, friends, the picture shows you what 

 H. A. March has accomplished by years of 

 toil away out in the woods in that new coun- 

 try. Now, do you know there is not a spring 

 to be found somewhere in* the hillside near 

 you ? and if there is, have you got the energy 

 and go-ahead to develop such a plant and such 

 a reputation too as H. A. March's strain of 

 seeds has secured ? 



Yes, there is another little story I wish to 

 tell. Just notice how well our veteran friend 

 holds his age. He is conducting a profitable 

 business, even if he is toward 70 or may be be- 

 yond it. Well, when he was but a little over 

 50 he thought he was broken down and played 

 out. He was so nervous he could hardly write 

 his own name. Do you ask what made him 

 young again ? Why, he gave up his tobacco 

 for a Simplicity smoker, and in a few weeks' 

 time his hand was as steady as if it were made 

 of cast iron ; and with the money he had pre- 

 viously used to buy tobacco he purchasd about 

 as pretty a library of good and useful books as 

 you are likely to find in any home in our land. 

 What sane man would think of dying of old 

 age before he is 60, when he might just as well 

 be vigorous, bright, and hardy for 20 years or 

 more longer ? 



