The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1167 
Farming in Florida 
I have read with interest Mr. Cos¬ 
grove’s letters telling about his trip to 
Florida and his observation of things 
while there last. Winter. I take no issue 
with him, hut having spent 14 Winters 
in Florida I have come to believe, like 
the old German, “The longer as you lives 
the more as you finds out.” I am past 
the threescore mark, and my life work 
has been intensified crop growing here in 
Indiana, where I own two farms. It 
has given me pleasure to see how much 
could he raised to the acre, of corn, po¬ 
tatoes, strawberries and other crops, that 
can, when weather conditions are favor¬ 
able. do so well here. I speak of this be¬ 
cause it. has trained me to observe closely 
soil and climatic conditions wherever I 
urn. 
For 11 Winters, using our home in St. 
Augustine as a base, m.v wife and I wan¬ 
dered over the peninsula of Florida, all 
the time interested in the soil and keeping 
our eyes and ears open for information. 
If I tell what we learned there will be 
bitter with the sweet, but we must never 
forget the truth of the old saying that 
“God did not put all the good things in 
one place.” I cannot quite agree with 
Mr. Cosgrove when he says the liability 
of killing frosts makes agriculture more 
of a gamble there than it is in the North¬ 
ern States. Look at us here in this sec¬ 
tion of the great corn-growing belt, last 
year! June 23, lf>18, a severe freeze 
killed thousands of acres of corn, too late 
to put in any other paying crop, while in 
Florida the growing season is so long that 
if a farmer there loses an early crop he 
can do as Mr. Cosgrove’s friend did; 
plant again. As to the fruit crops, our . 
fruits, especially strawberries, are always 
jeopardized by the May frosts. We had 
some great losses in the years gone by 
from them, and our orchards are occa¬ 
sionally killed by a severe Winter. Rut 
the trouble seems to be that a “freeze” in 
Florida is looked upon in the light, of a 
crime, yet there is no “frost line” on 
Fnele Sam’s domain. 
Our Western States were settled in a 
great measure by farmers, men who had 
actual experience in farm work and who 
knew beforehand the disappointments 
they were likely to have, but. who also 
knew the success to be attained by tenac¬ 
ity of purpose. How different the class 
that has of late years gone to Florida to 
make country homes ! The great majority 
are men from office or factory life in 
some Northern city. Then there is a 
small minority of wealthy men who de¬ 
light in spending money to exploit some 
fancy of their own who do not receive 
nor expect a money return from their 
ventures. Some of those in moderate 
circumstances have made good, hut a 
great many have been discouraged and 
disappointed, and in some measure their 
failure has been due to their having be¬ 
gun with wrong ideas. The daily news¬ 
papers of our cities are responsible in a 
great degree for leading the city workers 
to believe that if they can only get a 
piece of land they can live at ease. One 
vital thing the general public seems not 
to understand is that farming is just as 
much a profession as the so-called learned 
professions; in fact, is the foundation 
and support of all the others. The aver¬ 
age city chap seems to think he can get 
a book on farming, read up, and beat the 
“old hayseeds” at their game. 
To the Northern man who leaves his 
icebound home in January, Florida, like 
Beulah Land, “stands dressed in living 
green,” and is very attractive. The best 
farmer of the North cannot judge of 
Florida’s soil by casual survey. lie must 
dig into it. and he will learn that where 
the little short “hog palmetto” grows 
there is about two feet below the surface 
a stratum of hardpan some eight inches 
thick, so dense and hard that water can¬ 
not pass through. In a wet time natural 
drainage is cut off, and in a dry time no 
water can pass up by capillary attraction 
to sustain plant life. There are miles 
and miles of this open, level land, that 
causes the Northern farmer to wonder 
why it is so undeveloped. When he first 
sees it he pictures it as a vast cornfield, 
and feels as if it should be used. It is 
upon this almost barren land that many 
would-be “settlers” have been placed by 
conscienceless laud syndicates. 
There are good lands in Florida: good, 
I mean, for general farming, and all they 
lack is “real for sure” farmers to make 
them productive. Tattle, hogs, and even 
sheep can be profitably raised. Oats, 
corn and potatoes do well. There ai*o 
many things Florida farmers can grow, 
owing to their long season, that we can¬ 
not. On the other hand, we grow some 
things that do not grow there, notably 
clover and Blue grass. Missing these 
things I have heard farmers, sunning 
themselves in the Plaza at. St. Augustine, 
while their folks at home were shoveling 
snowdrifts, talk about Florida farming 
and make such assertions as this: “I 
wouldn’t give my quarter section in Iowa 
(or Dakota, Illinois. Indiana or Ohio, as 
the case may be) for the whole State of 
Florida.” They do not know what they 
are talking about. In the first place, 
Florida’s tourist season is not the time to 
see crops other than the citrus fruits and 
some Winter vegetables. Two years ago 
this Spring Irish potatoes were shipped 
north from the Hastings district in St. 
John’s County, enough to make a train 
of cars 25 miles long, 200 barrels to the 
car, and the crop from something like 
12,000 acres brought $5,000,000. That 
was an ideal season for the potatoes, and 
prices were high. They have their good, 
and bad seasons, the same as other sec¬ 
tions of our land. The wise thing for 
the person who has "Florida fever” to do 
is to go first and look around. Better 
spend some money that way than to buy 
“sight unseen.” 
Mr. Cosgrove-writes of seeing sprouts 
that had grown into trees from the 
stumps of orange trees that had been 
frozen down. I have seen the same thing 
at Orlando, but if Mr. Cosgrove will go 
to the west coast of Florida, below the 
Manatee River, he will find orange trees 
that have never been frozen, and that are 
said to be 00 years old. They have es¬ 
caped because the freezing northwest 
wind that does the mischief in Florida has 
to cross several hundred miles of the Gulf 
before striking that part of the State. I 
have no real estate of any kind on the 
west coast; I am only telling of things as 
I have seen them. I was a renter for 10 
years in Indiana, and my neighbors say 
I have “made good,” but I believe if I 
were a young man today I could do as 
well in Florida as I have done in Indi¬ 
two miles to the river. In the fiver bot¬ 
toms there is quite a bit of farming car¬ 
ried on. However, in that part of the 
country cattle and sheep raising is the 
chief industry. 
A Great Ranch.—A large cattle 
ranch, known as the “.T. .1. Ranch,” is 
situated in the Picketwire Valley. This is 
a very pretty place. The houses are all in 
bungalow style, painted green, with red 
roofs. The largest house is where the 
manager lives. There is a large provision 
house and many smaller houses where the 
different cow punchers live. The long 
sheds and barns are also painted, making 
it a very nice looking place. The Here¬ 
ford cattle are handled almost exclusively 
on this ranch. Thousands of cattle are 
shipped from this ranch alone, every 
year, to the Kansas City market. A 
beautiful lawn and cottonwood trees make 
the ranch very inviting to weary trav¬ 
elers, and people are always treated roy¬ 
ally when they stop here. 
Primitive Building. —The claim 
houses are usually made of adobe or logs, 
and contain but one or two rooms. The 
roofs are fiat. We visited a family who 
live in a typical claim house, not long 
ago. It was situated in a narrow canyon, 
called “Ebarra Canyon.” There were 
high, steep, rocky cliff's on two sides, then 
a small stream trickled down the ravine. 
On one side of this stream was the house. 
For quite a long time they had had only 
two rooms, but two other had been added. 
Each room was the same size and they 
Cattle on Rauch in Eastern Colorado 
ana, and not suffered tin * 1 hardships and 
cold that I have in my Northern life. 
Delaware Co., Ind. lewis g. cowing. 
Spring in Eastern Colorado 
“The day is cold and dark and dreary. 
It rains, and the wind is never weary!” 
These familiar lines seem most fit in 
describing this dreary, rainy day. Dark, 
heavy clouds are all over the sky. Quick 
Hashes of lightning and loud, roaring 
thunder caused a great deal of excitement 
for a while, but now it has settled down 
to a slow, steady rain. All the irrigation 
ditches are full and overflowing. Our 
wheatfields are regular lakes. In the pas¬ 
ture the milch cows are huddled together 
in the most sheltered place, with hopes 
of keeping warm and dry. Such heavy 
rains are not usually frequent in this part 
of “Sunny Colorado.” It seems nu fe like 
what we used to have down in Eastern 
Tennessee. However, in this climate we 
do not have mud, as they do down there. 
It is usually muddy but two or three days 
after having a hard rain. We are glad 
to have the moisture, for it will do lots 
of good, but it will keep the farmers back 
with planting some of the crops. Be¬ 
cause of no much rainfall, several farm¬ 
ers have been compelled to plant their 
beet seed a second time, the first having 
rotted in the ground. We have been late 
with our garden this year, but it will 
grow nicely after so much moisture. 
Range Pasture. —The abundance of 
rainfall has made the grazing good on 
the range. We were very fortunate in 
having taken our young cattle down to 
our pasture, about 10 miles from here, 
the other day. The range grass is now 
in fine condition. Under the grazing law. 
which was passed two years ago, a person 
is allowed to take up (540 acres of land, 
having only to live on it seven months out 
of the year, for three years. Having 
reached my twenty-second milestone not 
long since I. too. have taken up a claim 
adjoining my father. The laud is sloping 
and very pretty indeed. There are shel¬ 
tered places behind bluffs which are nice 
for stock. On the sides of the hills the 
grass is green, while these lead down into 
such pretty green valleys. 
The Landscape. —In the distance 
about five miles south is a long range of 
cedar trees running along the sides of the 
Picketwire River. Here there is much 
more rainfall. It seems so wonderful to 
be riding along for miles and miles on 
land that is as level as a table, with only 
here and there a small ridge or hill and 
then, almost before you can realize it. to 
be winding in and out between the hills 
and down a narrow canyon. High, rocky, 
steep hills are on all sides of you. The 
.rocks are of a reddish brown color, and 
the pretty green cedar trees, many of 
which grow right out of large rocks, make 
the scene very pretty indeed. After you 
get to the edge of the “Cedars” is about 
were right along in a row. The walls 
were made of cedar posts, put together 
closely and then plastered over with a 
sort of mud called adobe. The ceilings 
were also of posts, with the bark all 
peeled off. They were very close together. 
In the middle of the ceiling, running the 
length of the room, were two long cotton¬ 
wood logs. They, too, had the bark re¬ 
moved. and were real white. The posts, 
from both sides, rested on these cotton¬ 
wood logs in the middle. Then, on the 
outside, a good supply of dirt had been 
thrown on the posts. Grass and weeds 
were growing on the roof of the house, 
the same as on the ground. They have 
such nice spring water piped right to the 
house. At the head of the canyon they 
have an orchard, where peach, cherry, 
plum and apple trees grow. Here there 
is a beautiful spring with ice-cold water 
as clear as crystal. 
Dairy and Beef Cattle. —We have 
found that it pays very well to have a 
dairy herd and send milk to the conden- 
sery. and at the same time have Hereford 
or Durham cattle to fatten for market. 
The high prices of feed make it necessary 
for a stockman to raise most of his own 
feed. So iu connection we have the farm 
here, where we raise corn for the silo. 
Alfalfa, cane and beets, so as to get the 
beet pulp for feed. Of course we also 
have wheat, oats. etc. Having leased 
several sections of land adjoining our 
land down there, we expect to have plenty 
of pasture to take care of all our cattle 
until late Fall. mrs. Helen harball. 
Otero Co., Col. 
THE MAILBAG 
paint must be strained through cheese¬ 
cloth to remove the tiny particles of dried 
paint skin. This process has proved very 
satisfactory in every way. The grinder is 
easily cleaned with kerosene oil, then 
washed in hot suds, scalded and dried. 
Often the papers are not even spattered; 
then again some awkard move will show 
how necessary they were, so it is best al¬ 
ways to use them when working inside. 
However, it is good outdoor work this 
time of year. orpiia d. van houten. 
New York. 
Pulling Out Lumber 
We have about 2a acres of timber we 
wish to. cut for lumber and firewood. 
M ould it be practical or economical to 
cut the roots on one side of tree and then 
use a stump puller to throw them down? 
The trees range from 5 to 10 in. in diam¬ 
eter. B . 
Pennsylvania* 
This is a new one on us and we must 
refer it to practical lumbermen. If you 
put the stump puller out of the way of 
danger you might use the weight of' the 
falling tree to pull out the stump. But 
who knows how practical that is? 
Robins in Florida 
In the fourth of George A. Cosgrove’s 
interesting letters on a trip to Florida 
lie says he did not see a robin in the 
South in all last M'inter. The robin 
when be starts for the South, is an un¬ 
certain character. He is like the “wind 
which “goes inhere it listeth,” and no man 
knows “whence it Cometh and whither it 
goeth.” I saw perhaps half a dozen 
robins last M'inter down here in'Palm 
Beach County, but quite often we don’t 
see any all Winter. Yet one Winter, 
nine or 10 years ago. there were thou¬ 
sands of them here all M'inter. and the 
next Spring the cutworms had nearly all 
disappeared. The mildness or severity of 
the Northern Winters does not seem to 
have, anything to do with the robin's 
erratic movements. F. h. ciiesebro. 
.1 loridn. 
Suggestions on the Carrot Crop 
. From Fred W. Card’s article on grow¬ 
ing carrots we all judge that he knows 
about all there is to the carrot business. 
But I have one suggestion that came to 
me from a friend several years ago that 
I want to pass along to Mr. Card and 
others That is to mix the seed thorough¬ 
ly with five or six times its bulk of good 
dry sifted sawdust before putting it in 
drill. You will then have bulk enough 
so that you can see the stream coming 
from the machine all the time, and can 
sow the seed thinly enough to do away 
with most of the thinning and still get a 
good, even stand. Now if someone can 
tell us how to keep the weeds out of the 
rows, without hand weeding! But we 
generally manage to get along with the 
one hand weeding of the rows at the time 
of thinning, which is not so bad after all. 
„ . „ , _ MERRITT If. CLARK. 
I airfield Co., Conn. 
Cutting a Bee Tree 
nave T the right to cut a bee tree on 
other people’s property without permis¬ 
sion from theiq ? • - , ' f. c. 
New York. 
To go upon another man’s premises and 
destroy property would obviously be be¬ 
yond one’s rights, though the amount of 
damage the owner could collect for the 
cutting, of a bee tree would probably be 
small in most cases. Custom has made 
the. discoverer of a bee tree the first 
claimant. upon its contents, but, unless 
the tree is so old and rotten as to be en¬ 
tirely worthless, and its situation such as 
to. make its cutting no real trespass, per¬ 
mission from the owner should he ob¬ 
tained before it is destroyed for the honey 
that it may contain. m. b. r>. 
Trapping Woodchucks 
Regrinding Dried Paint 
You have helped me so many times 
with practical suggestions that I am glad 
to he able to contribute my bit to assist 
P. J. S., North Middleboro, Mass., with 
the dried paint problem. I, too, have old. 
hard paint, and this is what I do with it: 
I spread paper thickly over my kitchen 
table and the floor under and around it; 
then screw the meat chopper securely to 
the table, adjust the peanut butter knife, 
coarse side in, and, digging out small 
chunks of the paint, proceed to grind it in 
the meat chopper, adding small quantities* 
of linseed oil, raw if for outside work, 
boiled if to be used inside, adding just 
enough oil to force the paint through the 
grinder. When I have ground sufficient 
for my purpose I reverse the knife, using 
the fine side inside, and regrind it. It is 
now a smooth, heavy paste that can be 
thinned to suit the work to he done. If 
for outside painting I use raw oil and a 
very little turpentine. If for inside use, 
boiled oil and more turpentine. If for 
flat or dull finished wall paint, use tur¬ 
pentine alone, and for all purposes the 
You say on page 032, in reply to J. 
L. M.’s inquiry about getting ‘ rid of 
woodchucks the surest way is to wait 
until they come out and shoot them. It 
has always seemed to me as if trying to 
shoot them is a great waste of time and, 
ordinarily, ammunition also. The last 
two years I have been having very good 
success trapping them. With three or 
four large steel fox traps I can catch 
more ’chucks than all the marksmen iu 
the neighborhood, and spend much less 
time. I have caught a dozen or more 
’chucks this year already. It takes only 
a few minutes to look after the traps, 
and then they do the waiting. I set the 
traps iu their runways near their holes, 
preferably in the grass, and cover over 
lightly with a little grass. Mr. Chuck is not 
very cunning and will walk right into 
the trap. When you get him this way 
you know you have him. Do not put the 
trap in the hole, as the ’chuck will cover 
it up with dirt. I find the hogs eat. the 
whole carcass of the woodchuck with 
great relish. MARSHALL M. MURRAY. 
New York. 
Failure of Alfalfa 
Alsike clover grows well ou my farm, 
but I caunot get the common Alfalfa to 
grow. M. s. 
Oswego, N. Y. 
We should consider that evidence that 
the land is too sour for the Alfalfa. It 
needs lime. Alsike is the best clover for 
wet, sour land. M'e think, though we do 
not know, that some of the newer varie¬ 
ties of Alfalfa are somewhat like Alsike 
in their lime requirements. 
