lyo6 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



599 



unite. This gives us a top of the valued vari- 

 ety. It amounts to the same thing as graft- 

 ing, but it is possible where grafts could not 

 be made to grow. The little tree is then re- 

 moved, and treated like any grafted stock. 

 We saw great numbers of little trees that 

 had already been grafted by this process, or 

 were in process of grafting or in-arching. 

 A small potted plant can, by reversing the 

 process, be put in the top of a big tree, so 

 as to get fruit very much quicker than could 

 be obtained by waiting for the young tree to 

 grow full size. Mr. Reasoner was rather 

 crowded for time that day because he had just 

 got a new Cadillac automobile, and he was 

 preparing to take some of his neighbors out to 

 ride. By the way, there is not much trouble 

 in running autos in Florida, because there 

 are almost no horses to get frightened. The 

 gasohne- launches and sail-boats I have told 

 you about do not "scare " worth a cent. 



Our next stop was at Mr. W. B. Collins', 

 Oneca. While Mrs. Root was chatting with 

 Mrs. Collins, and admiring the beautiful 

 tropical flowers surrounding their southern 

 home, Mr. Collins beckoned to me and said 

 he had something I would be glad to see, in 

 the back yard. Well, I was glad. On ac- 

 count of the excitement of getting ready 

 for our long trip, or something else, 1 had 

 kind o' lost my appetite, and was not feel- 

 ing just right. When we got through the 

 house into the back yard, there was a tree 

 loaded with the biggest black mulberries I 

 ever saw in my life. They were fully as 

 large as my thumb, and two inches long, and 

 the most luscious berries, it seems to me, I 

 ever tasted- at least it looked that way just 

 then. The trees were covered with berries 

 dead ripe, and the ground was pretty well 

 covered. When I picked some off the ground 

 to see if they were just the same, he pro- 

 tested, and said there was a great plenty 

 on the tree. While I ate I talked 



' ' Why, my good friend, I have heard these 

 were splendid for chickens. Why don't your 

 nice-looking fowls turn in and utilize them?" 

 " Why, the chickens do eat all they want, 

 every day; but there are more than enough 

 for the chickens and our family besides." 



I thought if that was the case I would 

 have all I wanted. As I hustled the big 

 ripe berries into my mouth it seemed as if 

 they hit the * ' spot " to a dot. They filled 

 the traditional "long-felt want;" at least it 

 was the long- felt want on that particular 

 hot day. Some sort of intuition told me 

 they would not hurt me a bit, but that they 

 were just the medicine I needed — God's 

 medicine— and so it proved. They just made 

 me well. I suppose this large luscious mul- 

 berry will not grow in the North, and it is 

 really too bad. I inquired if I could get this 

 kind of mulberry at Reasoners' nursery, al- 

 most next door. Mr. Collins replied, " I do 

 not know the name of this particular mul- 

 berry; but Mr. Reasoner has not any like it, 

 because I have bought irees of him and they 

 are not nearly as large nor as early. But 

 you do not need to buy any trees— you can 

 have cuttings from this one— all you want." 



Then I noticed that the long branches were 

 loaded with fruit clear up in the air, twenty 

 feet in every direction, some of them run- 

 ning away up above the house. Let me di- 

 gress a little. 



Not many days before, Mr. Shumard said 

 he would like to have me go with him and 

 show him how I would trim his two mulber- 

 ry-trees. They had been growing just one 

 year from the cuttings, and had sent out 

 branches eight or ten feet long. After we 

 had decided how much of the new growth 

 would better be cut off, he took these limbs 

 and cut them up, one bud to a piece. There 

 were just 22 pieces, some as large as your 

 finger, and some smaller. He put them in 

 the garden in a row with so little care that 

 I made up my mind he would not get a tree 

 from one of them. Now, this was the de- 

 cision when there was not very much rain; 

 but in two or three weeks every mulberry- 

 cutting had sent out a long green shoot; 

 and just as I came away, several of these 

 shoots had got fair sized berries on them. 

 Mr. Shumard remarked he would have to 

 cut the berries off, as they would do better 

 if not allowed to bear. I mention this as a 

 sample of the way certain tropical fruits 

 grow in Florida.* We had such bad luck 

 with corn and potatoes and some other 

 things that will grow up here in the North 

 Mrs. Root came pretty near deciding that 

 nothing would grow in Florida. After she 

 had been to visit the Reasoner Brothers and 

 some other people, she changed her mind. 

 It is true that some things do not seem to 

 grow at all down there in the tropics. Then 

 before you know it they will begin to shoot 

 up and show such an astonishmg growth 

 that you get one of those "happy sur- 

 prises." 



After I had satisfied myself from that 

 mulberry- tree, friend Collins showed me a 

 raspberry- bush. Now, it has been pretty 

 well established for years past that currants, 

 raspberries, and many of our northern fruits 

 would not grow at all in Florida; but just 

 now they have got hold of a new raspberry 

 that looks very much like the wine-berry 

 ofl:"ered for sale in the North a few years 

 ago. This new raspberry grows and bears 

 fruit in Florida all right. Yes, you would 

 think so if you saw that raspberry- bush 

 there at brother Collins' place. Some of 

 the shoots were away up in the air ten or 

 twelve feet, and pretty nearly the size of a 

 hoe handle at that, and the fruit was strung 

 along the old bearing wood like currants on 

 a currant-bush. They were not ripe at that 

 time, so I could not judge of the size or qual- 



* 1 have before mentioned the pecuHar greed with 

 which the Florida poultry take to all sorts of garden 

 stuff, fruit, etc. Well, these mulberries, with their 

 wonderfully luxuriant growth all over Florida, seem to 

 supply this need of the poultry. In many places they 

 said they grew them expressly for the chickens. The 

 whole feathered tribe is fond of fruit. Some of us know 

 this to our sorrow. Well, these mulberries in Florida 

 are easily raised, but are so perishable as soon as they 

 are dead ripe, that they are seldom found in the markets; 

 but they are jast the thing for the chickens, and 1 am 

 sure they will be conducive to their health along with 

 their grain feed. They hflp to make a balanced ration 

 with fowls as well as with mankind. 



