362 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 18, 
Hope Farm Notes 
FLORIDA NOTES. No. 6. 
There are three other classes to be con¬ 
sidered. Suppose this Jersey couple had 
children, relatives or close friends who 
could unite with them to make a home at 
each end of the country. Some of these 
other people could come and live here per¬ 
manently—acquire land and develop a farm 
or garden proposition. The elderly people 
coma go back and forth with the changing 
seasons while the permanent settlers could 
stay here and work out some definite plan. 
That is one class of immigrants who ask 
advice. Another class is represented by 
the man of middle years who has ac¬ 
cumulated little or nothing, but sees that he 
is to be crowded out of his job or trade. 
What chance is there for such a man to 
make a living and a home in Florida? 
The other class I have in mind is the strong 
and powerful farmer or farm hand, well 
fitted to endure privation and master the 
obstacles of pioneer life. Should such a 
man go to the West or to Canada, and 
struggle against the frost, or come to this 
soft and balmy land to make his home? 
Let me see if I can describe fairly what 
this section of Florida could offer' such peo¬ 
ple. I am not to discuss the smart busi¬ 
ness man with ample capital who wants to 
start fruit or celery or similar things on 
a large scale. That man does not need 
advice. He goes himself and can afford to 
buy experience. 
If any such people came here and took 
ordinary land what could they do with it? 
Unless they bought land that had already 
been cleared they would be obliged to grub 
out palmetto or dig out pine stumps. I 
do not believe you could clear such land 
and. make it fit for trucking for less than 
$60 per acre, and probably far more. I 
would not plant oranges or grapefruit as 
a permanent crop. Some varieties of 
peaches do well here. At the la^t of Janu¬ 
ary our peach trees were in bloom, but 
later many buds were killed in a section 
a few miles east. In theory peach growing 
might pay, as the fruit will come on ahead 
of the Georgia crop and danger from frost 
is not great. In order to ship successfully 
there should be large orchards, so as to 
take advantage of carload rates. I do not 
think the small grower would have a show, 
but it seems likely that a small canning 
factory to handle peaches and some vege¬ 
tables could be made to pay. As for po¬ 
tatoes, the crop has been cut down twice 
already this Winter. We raised three crops 
some years ago—one caught frost, another 
drought and another flood—neither paid. 
Yet it is a fact that some districts in 
North Florida report success with potatoes. 
These are usually sections with peculiai’ly 
good soil and some sheltered locations. 
There you have a strange thing about 
Florida. There are spots of excellent soil 
with a location near a large lake or river 
where ‘frost keeps away. Orange trees have 
been hurt at Tampa, while on the St. Johns, 
just below Jacksonville, they were unin¬ 
jured. There is no State in the Union 
with such striking and inexplainable vari¬ 
ation of soil and frost conditions. The 
land boomers make their argument on the 
possibilities of thfe best, and then try to 
sell some of the worst. 
What about strawberry growing? We 
brought down potted plants of Marshall, 
and also bought Southern grown plants of 
Klondyke, Lady Thompson and others. The 
Marshalls grew about one-third the size 
of our New Jersey plants, and make a few 
berries. This variety is not suited to 
Florida conditions. The others do better 
when irrigated but the yield is very small. 
Our people have been picking berries right 
along, but no one could make a living 
growing any such crop. It would be non¬ 
sense to depend on strawberries here. Are 
these great stories about berry growing 
fakes? I do not think so, in fact it seems 
evident that there are several places in 
the State where berries do fairly well. I 
do not believe they ever give over one- 
third the yield we get in the North, and 
heavy fertilizing and irrigation are needed. 
Pecan culture is promising on the 
heavier Florida soils. There are many na¬ 
tive trees here and the nuts are good. In 
some places on the heavy soils there are 
good groves, and the business is promis¬ 
ing, though I do not think Florida can 
compare with Texas or the lower Missis¬ 
sippi Valley in pecan culture. At our 
place groves are being started by trans¬ 
planting young hickory trees and when 
they are w T ell established grafting with 
pecans. I saw a number of such trees well 
started and making a fine g. wth. One 
would hardly believe that this soil was 
capable of producing so much wood in a 
single season. In one of these groves there 
was still further evidence of the power of 
this soil to produce—in the growth of Vel¬ 
vet bean. This bean is put in as a sort of 
cover crop much as we would sow cow- 
peas or Soy beans to cover and hold the 
soil. The Velvet bean vines had been 
plowed under and a crop of oats was above 
ground on January 28, but high up In the 
air on the larger trees were bean pods 
showing where the vines had climbed 25 
feet or more. There could be no doubt 
about it, and I am told that on good soil 
this Velvet bean will make vines 40 feet 
long and actually chase a man out of a 
cornfield! I tried this Velvet bean in 
New Jersey, but it gave less growth than 
our common pole Lima. Here in Florida, 
however, it is a perfect giant for gather¬ 
ing nitrogen and providing vegetable mat¬ 
ter. If we had any such plant at the 
North to work with our orchards and truck 
lands the fertilizer bills could be cut in 
two without trouble. Yet here is Florida 
with all those opportunities for growing 
these crops not half utilizing them. Uncle 
Ed and I planted some roots of kudzu. 
They looked somewhat like very thick 
asparagus roots. We took a place in the 
garden and put the roots about six feet 
apart. Uncle Ed drove a spade into the 
ground and pushed it forward to make a 
fair-sized hole. I stuck the root in be¬ 
hind the spade, poured in a little water 
and pounded the soil down hard. The 
plants started rapidly. They were hurt 
by the frost late in February, but at once 
started again. From the looks of them I 
judge that they will make an immense 
growth. From that garden patch I expect 
to get roots enough to plant acres, and 
that ought to take care of the stock food 
proposition. 
For it seems to me that the future of our 
locality lies in a combination of live stock 
and some Winter crop that is less of a 
gamble than potatoes or oranges. I would 
cut out lettuce and celery. These seem 
to be gambling crops, and also require large 
areas and large shipments in order to at¬ 
tract buyers and obtain carload rates. I 
think the Bermuda onion would suit our 
locality and people. This crop will not be 
hurt by such frosts as we are likely to 
get and it need not be rushed off in a 
hurry regardless of the price. It can, also, 
be marketed through a long season. In 
order to raise onions one must have an 
abundance of water and a strong soil. It 
would be foolish to try to raise an onion 
crop where we are located without an ir¬ 
rigating outfit to provide abundant water. 
There has been practically no rain for 
three months. By March 1 the orange 
bloom was appearing, but the growers fear 
that the soil is so dry that most of the 
blossoms will fall off. I would take eare 
of the watering part by pumping water 
out of one of the small ponds and running 
it over the field as needed. The onions 
would occupy the land during the Fall and 
Winter. For the rest of the year I would 
prepare the onion land by feeding stock on 
it. I think hogs would be best. My plan 
would be to start with some of the nest 
native sows we can find, and a good Berk¬ 
shire boar; enclose the land with wire 
fence into small fields and sow them in 
rape, sorghum, Velvet bean or any of the 
dozen crops which grow so remarkably in 
Florida. I would turn these pigs from 
one field to another, give them good shelter 
and water, cut green kudzu for them and 
feed some grain. In September or October 
take them out and put them elsewhere for 
finishing, take up the fences, plow the 
land where these hogs have fed and seed 
it to onions. 
Now, briefly stated, that is what I should 
try to do if I went to this part of 
Florida to make my home. The scheme 
may be fatally defective in some particu¬ 
lar which I have not thought out. If so, 
will some one who has tried it set me 
right and tell wherein the plan would 
fail? I feel disposed to try it on a small 
scale anyway in connection with Uncle 
Ed and Charlie. It would make a good 
experiment and perhaps provide a new oc¬ 
cupation for our section. The hog looks 
to me like the best citizen for stopping one 
of the greatest leaks through which money 
drops away from Florida. He does not 
find fault with his board and lodging like 
many Winter boarders, and he will root 
the ground and leave it in great condition 
for a crop. I have been told that hogs 
“ruin the ground” for a cabbage crop, but 
I never believed it. I think they would 
help fit it for onions. At any rate 1 feel 
sure that the future of North Florida is 
tied up to some combination of live stock 
keeping and vegetables or grain. The boll 
weevil is crawling slowly eastward across 
the Gulf States, and cotton is rising in 
price. Florida may yet be needed to pro¬ 
duce the finer grades of cotton and live 
stock will prepare for that. Such work as 
I have mentioned is suited to the first two 
classes referred to above. They must have 
capital to secure their outfit and hold in 
reserve until they learn how to operate. 
It would be a most foolish thing for a 
man to come here with a family, spending 
all he had for land and for moving. Flor¬ 
ida is emphatically not the place for the 
man without capital. I do not eare what 
the land boomers or land agents say. Take 
it from me and keep away from Florida 
unless you have the full price to pay for 
a Winter home or capital enough to stock 
a farm and then carry a reserve. Certain 
land boomers are offering “farms” with a 
lot in a “city” thrown in. Let them alone 
as you would avoid playing with a bad case 
of the ague packed in red-hot coals! As for 
the strong man, such as those who made 
up the army of early pioneers, I should 
expect him to do better striking off into 
the colder and rougher section of the 
country. As for buying land in so-called 
“co-operative” companies or buying stock in 
land enterprises, my general' advice is—■ 
don’t do it! I have not investigated their 
land or their prospects, but I do know 
enough about Florida to see the fearful 
chances for misrepresentation and fraud 
which are possible in these land deals. I 
would not spend a cent with any of them. 
I have no doubt there are 50,000 land 
owners in Florida who would hop at the 
chance to sell their land for half what it 
has cost them. If you want land find one 
of these freeze-outs and let the land boom¬ 
ers alone. 
And now let us go back to New Jersey 
awhile and see how Hope Farm is doing. 
h. w. c. 
Your Spring Wheat Must Grow Fast 
It hasn’t long- to mature and you must push it right 
along—from seeding time to harvest—by giving it the 
right kind and amount of food. 
Use from 300 to 600 lbs. per acre of fertilizer contain¬ 
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