19U7 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1605 



HIGH PRESSURE 



GADDENING 



A.Li;^OT 



"GAKDKNING IN THE WOODS," ETC., IN THE 

 MONTH OF NOVKMBKK, IN SOUTH- 

 ERN FLOKIDA. 



Our " woods " comprises just one acre, and 

 it is just across the street from E. B. Rood's 

 place (see his strawberry article, June 15), 

 and one mile from Braidentown. I reached 

 here Nov. 8; and the next morning, with the 

 help of "Charlie" (a colored boy of 24), I 

 broke ground for a garden. The tirst thing 

 was to grub out the roots of the scrub pal- 

 metto; and as they are about as big as a 

 man's leg, and anywhere from 3 to 10 feet 

 long, pretty well clinched in a horizontal 

 position in old Mother Earth, it is quite a 

 job. By night, however, we had a bed 6 

 feet wide and about 40 feet long, and, I 

 thought, ready for seeds. Mr. Rood, how- 

 ever, declaied I would get no '' high-jires- 

 sure'" gardening until the ground had been 

 worked over and "sweetened" for about a 

 year. Up in Michigan new ground is the 

 thing; but not so in Florida. Where the pal- 

 metto has been grubbed out it is "sour,"and 

 full of tannic rcid, etc. I told Mr. Rood I 

 must have som<:bing growing on my ground, 

 and by his advice (although nc shook his 

 head somewhat) 1 put on about a pailful of 

 high-priced fertilizer, then went out through 

 the woods with a wheelbarrow and gathered 

 a barrelful of "cow-chips." This barrel was 

 then set up on a board just as we leach ashes 

 up north, and we were all ready for water. 

 Now, please don't find fault if I do tell about 

 the good things where God happens to drop 

 me, and say little of the bad things. 



One thing that greatly rejoices my heart 

 is the ease with which we get beautiful soft 

 water almost all over Florida. My well close 

 by the garden cost less than $5.00 (pump and 

 all), and it was driven down so we could 

 pump water in about 20 minutes. The wa- 

 ter is so soft, Mrs Rood says thei'e is little or 

 no difference between it and rain water. 

 Charlie talks very little unless he is spoken 

 to. He said the bucket of fertilizer was all 

 right, and the cow chips were all right for 

 the garden, but when he saw me pouring 

 water in the top of that barrel herul)bed his 

 woolly head and looked troubled. Finally he 

 ventured : 



"Mr. Root, don't you think the water you 

 are pouring on that manure will take all the 

 'goodness ' out of it?" 



"You are just right about it, Charlie: it is 

 this same 'goodness' we are after;" and 

 when he saw me push a pail under the dark 

 liquid that began to run from the base-board 

 he looked relieved. Well, I bought a great 

 big sprinkling-can and drenched my garden 

 daily; and now (Nov. 21) I have radishes, 



lettuce, beets, and onions up, and looking 

 pretty well in spite of the newness and tan- 

 nic acid. Although we have had no rain 

 for a month or more I have worked my pump 

 until I was tired, and the stream holds out 

 full. The lower end of the strainer is down 

 only about 8 feet. The water has a slight 

 sulphur taste, it is true; but as the men at 

 work on our house say it is tiptop for drink- 

 ing, I shall have to conclude it agrees with 

 people generally. I have been so long ac- 

 customed to rain water that, even when 

 boiled or exposed to the air, it rather upset 

 my digestion ; and as we had been having 

 several days of very warm weather I was a 

 little out of sorts and longing fur something, 

 I hardly knew what, to take the bad taste 

 out of my mouth, when Mr. Rood's team 

 came along with a few strawberries — the 

 very first of the season. 



Well, friends, I never in my life invested 

 a little money in medicine, food, or anything 

 else, that gave me so much satisfaction as a 

 box of those Excelsior strawberries. 1 kept 

 some of them all day; and to say they "hit 

 the spot " every time doesn't half tell it. So 

 far as I know, Mr. Rood has the tirst straw- 

 berries put on the market in Florida. He 

 sells them all in his home market, and starts 

 them at only 35 cts. a quart. 1 have sampled 

 strawberries in Bermuda, Cuba. California, 

 and all over the North, but I certainly never 

 saw any handsomer and more luscious than 

 his Excelsior. They are of fine shape, good 

 size, beautifully colored up, and, although 

 pretty tart for most people without sugar, 

 they suit me to a dot. Tlie perfume and the 

 tiavor are very much like those of the very 

 best wild strawberry. 1 say per/ume, for the 

 perfume of a box, even out in the open air, 

 is the best advertisement of the fruit that 

 can well be invented. Now, you need not 

 all come down here to raise strawberries, for 

 only a few of you could raise them as he does 

 if you tried, and perhaps only a part of the 

 few would be willing to take the pains he 

 does, and pay for the fertilizers. 



I am going to wind up my story by telling 

 you of something — I came near saying 

 "something better than even the soft water 

 and the strawberries." Listen. Mr. Rood's 

 house is very close to a well-ti'aveled road, 

 yet his doors are never locked, and in very 

 warm weather they are often left open all 

 night. His White Leghorn chickens roost in 

 an open shed quite near the highway, on 

 low-down roosts, and have done so for eight 

 years, and yet one-third of the population 

 are colored people; but he has not lost a chick- 

 en nor even a slraivberry, so far as he knows, 

 by theft. Just contrast this with many lo- 

 calities — in fact, most localities in the North, 

 especially rural districts near the great cities. 

 What does it mean? It means there is not a 

 saloon, and never has been, in this (Manatee) 

 county. The signiticance of this fact is just 

 now ringing throughout every State in our 

 nation— from Maine to Oklahoma, and from 

 Florida to -to Georgia. May God be prais- 

 ed that the prayers of the Anti-saloon League 

 have finally been heard and anstvercd. 



