Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 543 



ble gets brown, it should be cut off down to the ground and covered 

 liberally with a coat of well-rotted manure, and in the spring the first 

 work to be done in the garden is to fork up the asparagus bed with 

 a spading fork, but not so deep as to disturb the roots. Walking on 

 each side of the bed it can be forked up without treading on it, which - 

 never do if possible to avoid it. Asparagus should not be cut later 

 than July. Beds embracing a surface of twenty-four by forty feet 

 require, when the weeds begin to grow, about one and a half bushels 

 of salt sowed evenly over the whole surface, to be repeated with same 

 quantity twice afterward, when the weeds grow again. Asparagus 

 beds should be put out as early as the ground is warm enough to do 

 so — in April if possible. 



Florida. 



Mr. W. E. Molar, Uniontown, Fayette county, Pa., asked where 

 in Florida was best for him to go for health and good, cheap land ; 

 have lived on a farm and have $250. How warm is the climate com- 

 pared with Pennsylvania ? Is Florida subject to fevers % When is 

 the best time to go, the best route, and the probable cost from New 

 York city ? What is land worth 100 miles south of Jacksonville ? 

 and would you advise me to go ? 



Prof. Henry E. Colton — East Florida is the section for him, and 

 in that region up the St. John's river, north of Pilatka, there are 

 frosts almost every winter ; from Pilatka to near Enterprise occasion- 

 ally slight frosts. The east side of the St. John's is milder than the 

 west. For health he should leave the rivers and go inland. There 

 are several hundred thousand acres of good land in Florida subject 

 to the homestead act. He can find large quantities between the St. 

 John's and the ocean. The heat in summer is not so great as at many 

 places north, but it is long continued. Florida is a healthy country 

 to those who do not expose themselves to rain and late night air. 

 The inlands are all healthy. The soil is a peculiar mixture of sand 

 and lime, and only needs vegetable matter to make it yield abundantly. 

 The darker the soil the richer, but not so healthy. Sugar is to be 

 the great crop of Florida ; next peanuts. Money may be made from 

 oranges, bananas, etc., just as money is made here from apples, pears 

 or other fruit. With his $250 he may pre-empt 160 acres. First, he 

 must go there in the fall, and he must expect to buy his provisions 

 for one year. By spring he can have a good log hut on his claim and 

 twenty acres deadened and cleared. In some localities the logs will 

 pay him for clearing. He must fence in two or three acres 



