like ; but the sexes are easily distinguish- 

 able. The pollen of the male plant may 

 be preserved for pollination an entire 

 year as the females may bloom earlier or 

 later. 



The young fruit a few days after pol- 

 lination is white ; later it becomes green. 

 About the end of June three fruits will 

 have developed from each flower. If the 

 flowers are properly pollinated two of 

 the three fruits will fall, if not, all three 

 will stay hanging and produce fruit en- 

 tirely valueless. Towards the end of 

 summer the dates become red or yellow. 

 When a bright red or yellow they begin 

 to slowly ripen. 



Mexico, Arizona and California are 

 admirably adapted to date culture. In 

 Florida the test has not yet been thor- 

 oughly made, though South Florida 

 seems as well adapted as any state in the 

 Union. During the big freeze which de- 

 stroyed so many orange groves in north 

 and middle Florida the writer's trees 

 were frozen to the ground, but they grew 

 out again, and have been blooming for 

 three years, though they, thus far, have 

 borne no fruit. 



There are many varieties of dates, and 

 much is yet to be learned as to the pe- 

 culiar varieties best suited to each section 

 of a country. 



THE PINE. 



There are many varieties of Pine, but 

 the hard, curly, evergreen, resinous Pine 

 is a tree peculiar to the South, and it 

 is the chief resource of its lumber com- 

 merce. It grows very tall, often with a 

 circumference of six to ten feet, straight 

 up, thirty or forty feet to its first limb. 

 Its leaves, or "needles," are longer than 

 those of other pines, and, when gathered 

 green and cured in the shade, are much 

 used for pillows, because their aromatic 

 and resinous properties are conducive to 

 healthful sleep. During the months of 

 March and April, blooms form on the 

 end of each limb and branch ; and a 

 Pine-tree thus in bloom looks like a 

 Christmas tree' with the candles ready 

 for lighting, waiting but the hands of 

 the decorators and of Santa Claus. Later, 

 these blooms form a cone of hard, brown, 

 resinous leaves. These are useful for 

 kindling fires and for decorative pur- 

 poses. 



The tree is full of fat, resin and oil, 

 making the lumber hard, heavy and dur- 

 able, but needing good sharp tools to 

 work it up. The grain is beautifully 

 curly, and takes a very handsome polish. 



One of the greatest industries of the 

 South is the extracting of the oils and 

 resin from the Pines. The trees are 

 chipped, or "boxed," and the sap which 

 collects in the wound is gathered and 

 taken to the stills, where the turpentine 

 is distilled from the resin and the other 

 crude properties of this sap. The tree, 

 then, above the cut becomes light and 

 devoid of the heaviness and durability 

 which it had previously possessed. Be- 

 low the cut — which is generally about 

 two feet from the ground — the stump is 

 very rich in oils and resin ; and many 

 firms are engaged in having these split 

 finely, packed into convenient bundles and 

 shipped to distant cities where they are 

 used as kindling wood. Many a boy and 

 girl in pioneer times — and even yet, in 

 the backwoods districts — studied the mor- 

 row's lesson by the light of "a fat-pine 

 torch." 



THE CEDAR. 



The Cedar of the Southland is the 

 Red Cedar, growing most extensively in 

 Florida. Like all cedars it is an ever- 

 green. In the lowlands along the coasts 

 and hummocks it grows often six feet 

 in circumference, and twenty feet up to 

 the first limb. It branches heavily, and 

 grows leaves densely. These latter are 

 of a medium green color and are oily. 

 Berries are produced from which the use- 

 ful and fragrant cedar oil is pressed. 



The wood is dark-red in color. Where 

 quickly grown, in moist places, it is 

 straight-grained — so much so that it is 

 used almost exclusively in the making 

 of lead pencils. There are large mills 

 in Florida which do nothing but saw up 

 great rafts, steamer and train-loads of 

 red cedar into slats four or five inches 

 wide and the length of a lead pencil. 



Where the growth of the tree has been 

 slower — generally on high, dry or shelly 

 land — the grain is very curly, very dark- 

 red and extremely beautiful. Often the 

 large roots, too, are used, because these 

 are almost black. No wood takes on a 

 more beautiful polish than Red Cedar. 



