600 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



ity of the fruit. This raspberry is adver- 

 tised by Reasoner Brothers at Oneca, Man- 

 atee Co. , Fla. 



In the afternoon we visited friend Rood, 

 and found him still picking strawberries. 

 The mulberry-tree I mentioned on my for- 

 mer visit was bearing ripe fruit; but in size 

 and quality it bore no comparison to the tree 

 1 have mentioned. 



Next day Mr. S. C Corwin, of Braiden- 

 town, took us over to Terra Ceia island on 

 a visit. This island is celebrated for its 

 high-pressure gardening. Oranges and oth- 

 er tropical fruits flourish here; but the 

 principal crops are celery, cauliflower, to- 

 matoes, and other garden stuff. I will de- 

 scribe a visit to only one farmer or gardener, 

 whichever you may choose to call it, for il- 

 lustration. The tomatoes in one field were 

 two feet high or more, standing not more 

 than three or four feet apart, and every to- 

 mato-plant was an exact duplicate of those 

 all around it. The thrifty stalks were fully 

 the size of a hoe-handle. They had not yet 

 commenced bearing; but the picture was 

 beyond any thing I ever saw in the way of 

 a tomato-field. This wonderful growth and 

 luxuriance were the result of sub -irrigation. 

 There are artesian wells all over the island 

 They get the water by going down, if I am 

 correct, from 75 to 200 or 300 feet. Mr. 

 Clytt says this artesian water will not ans- 

 wer if run on top of the ground in furrows. 

 The action of the chemicals under the scorch- 

 ing rays of the sun produces an incrustation 

 that makes trouble. He runs the water in 

 tiles laid a foot or two under ground. He 

 can stop up these tiles so the water will 

 soak through the ground from one line of 

 tile to the other. I think they are two or 

 three rods apart. It requires much care 

 and experience to get, the amount of water 

 just right. All the soil on this island is so 

 porous that an excess of water gets' away 

 very quickly. The tiles help to take away 

 the surplus during heavy rains, providing, 

 of course, the outlet is all open. To make 

 a success of this kind of irrigation, the pro- 

 prietor needs to be constantly on hand, you 

 might almost say 24 hours out of 24. Any mis- 

 take in leaving the tiles open when they should 

 be shut, or shut when they ought to be open, 

 might ruin the crop. I saw a crop of onions 

 ready to pull, that, from some figures we 

 made on the spot, will yield over 2000 bush- 

 els to the acre. The ground had been 

 heavily fertilized for cauliflower before the 

 onions were planted ; but there was no fertiliz- 

 er put on the onions. The onions were all 

 transplanted. Every thing is transplanted 

 here on this ground that is so very 

 valuable. I almost dislike to tell you how 

 much land is worth an acre on this island; 

 but I can give you an idea by mentioning 

 the fact that a man paid $200 per acre rent 

 for fifteen or twenty acres; and he made 

 money enough after renting the ground for 

 two or three years to buy the land outright. 

 This man I have mentioned, Mr. Clytt, 

 grows three crops in a season right straight 

 along on the same ground; and it is no un- 



common thing to get from $1000 to $2000 

 per acre for his crop. He frequently uses a 

 ton and a half of fertilizer that costs $35 00 

 a ton for a single crop on one acre. 



Now, please do not misunderstand me that 

 Terra Ceia yields all over at this rate. I 

 have never been in a locality in my life 

 where there were not good farm<^rs as well 

 as poor ones, and I am afraid I saw more 

 acres of poor farming on this island than I 

 did of the high- pressure gardening Where 

 crops have been neglected, enormous weeds 

 shot up almost like trees. Mistakes in irri- 

 gation ruined other fields; and various in- 

 sect enemies required careful watching al- 

 most day and night to produce the great 

 successes. 



ORANGE-BLOSSOM HONEY, 



There has been quite a little discussion in 

 regard to this honey. It has been called of 

 poor quality; and some have even gone so 

 far as to say there is no such thing as 

 orange-blossom honey. Now, I think 1 have 

 got the truth of the matter, or pretty nearly 

 so. The bees do not always get honey from 

 orange-bloom; but some seasons they get a 

 good deal. There was an unusual yield dur- 

 ing this present spring. Friend Rood has 

 secured something like 1000 lbs ; and while 

 the quality is not, perhaps, equal to our 

 best clover honey here in the North, in my 

 judgment it comes very near it. If I re- 

 member correctly, friend Rood had as much 

 as 8| lbs. a day from a single colony on the 

 scales. Mr. J. D. Forsyth, at Orlando, Fla., 

 has had a wonderful flow of orange-blossom 

 honey. No wonder, for there are something 

 like 200 acres of orange- trees within three 

 miles of his home. I saw a three-story hive 

 on the scales, that had given 12 lbs. a day, 

 of orange-blossom honey, for three days in 

 succession; and the day I was there a 9-lb. 

 swarm came off from that hive. Of course, 

 this was extracted honey. 



At dinner-time I saw on the table the 

 prettiest display of honey that, I think, 

 ever met my eye. He took some very nice 

 orange-blossom sections and cut them up di- 

 agonally from one comer to the other. This 

 plan has been mentioned before in Glean- 

 ings. Each strip of white basswood section 

 contained a three-cornered piece of honey. 

 It stuck out from the section something like 

 a saw tooth. These chunks of honey at- 

 tached to the wooden section were skillfully 

 arranged on a glass dish. As the dish was 

 passed, each guest was expected to take 

 hold of the wood and lift up one of the lus- 

 cious three-cornered chunks. I wish I had a 

 picture of that dish of honey on the dining- 

 table. Well, when I came to taste it I ut- 

 tered an exclamation of surprise. I suppose 

 you know, friends, of course, I often do that. 

 I do not always say it out loud, but I do oft- 

 en say it to myself. When these wonderful 

 gifts of God are brought to my notice I can 

 not he'p saying mentally, "May the Lord 

 be praised for all this beauty." I would 

 give a lot of money to have every reader of 

 Gleanings taste some orange-blossom hon- 



