T*e RURAL NEW-YORKER 
419 
Agricultural Conditions in the South 
F ARMERS ARE THE SAME.—When we travel 
in a foreign country we expect to find new con¬ 
ditions, different people, strange viewpoints, such as 
Marco Polo found in the Orient. Instead we are 
more likely to find the people amazingly like those 
at home, and with problems like ours capable of the 
same solution. My trip through the South Atlantic 
States since October 15 has impressed me with the 
fact that farmers, East, West, North and South, are 
all the same, and that their great problems of lift' 
are simple, though by no means easy of solution. In 
every case they can bring about far better conditions 
by organization and co-operation. Every intelligent 
farmer knows this, but the one factor needed to 
change knowledge into action is the oft-repeated 
injunction of The It. N.-Y. that they must ‘‘Do it 
themselves.” For many years the cotton growers 
have waited for the Government or some outside 
force to help them in marketing their crops to better 
advantage, secure better prices and more liberal 
credit, but like the dairy farmers of New York, they 
found that their wishes were in vain until they 
formed their own organization. 
Sod L PECULIARITIES.—When 1 was a student 
at Cornell 1 heard Florida described by a witty 
speaker as a State without soil, and 
while, like most epigrams, this is un¬ 
true. there is comparatively a small 
part of the entire State which is capa¬ 
ble of raising farm crops without the 
use of large amounts of fertilizer. This 
is not itself an objection, for it is the 
farmer's business to change raw ma¬ 
terial of the fertilizer into the finished 
product of the vegetable: but a much 
more serious problem is the control of 
water. Almost all of the State of 
Florida needs drainage, and a large 
portion of it is almost flooded during 
the wet season of the year. Winter 
visitors through the State during the 
dry months get a very different view¬ 
point from those who have seen heavy 
rainfall of late Summer. Even this is 
no particular objection if the facts are 
well known, but the lack of natural 
fertility as well as the need of drain¬ 
age makes necessary a very heavy per¬ 
manent expense which is seldom given 
due consideration by the Northern 
farmer who contemplates escaping the 
severe Winters by moving to a gentler 
climate. Another serious objection and 
handicap is the great distance from 
market, which places the Florida 
grower in a poor position in compari¬ 
son to those who are nearer to market. 
THE POWER OF SUGGESTION.— 
It is well known by students of the ha- 
man mind that one word always sug¬ 
gests another. The word dog suggests 
cat. black suggests white,father suggests 
mother, and so in the average mind the 
word Florida suggests oranges, and 
this power of suggestion has been used to the largest 
extent in selling Florida real estate to Northern 
investors. It is true that Florida produces plenty 
of oranges. It is also true that the best Florida 
oranges are as superior as the New York State 
Spitzenberg is superior to a Ben Davis, but it is 
also true that California oranges of far less quality 
outsell the Florida fruit on great markets, and for 
the same reason that Oregon apples outsell those 
from Massachusetts. All over the orange-growing 
section there are old groves .of seedling oranges 
which are almost as diverse in quality as the apples 
of a wild orchard. Many of these are shipped by 
the packing houses and are purchased by people who 
are told that all Florida oranges are equally good. 
When- the prices are high much second-rate fruit is 
shipped to market, which should be kept at home 
and psed up for the making of by-products. It is 
true that there are various citrus exchanges which 
try hard to pack and ship uniform grades to build 
up a reputation, but no one exchange controls enough 
of the output that the real quality of the Florida 
fruit can meet with the reward which it deserves. 
When all Florida fruit is shipped through one ex¬ 
change and the growers will submit to strict grad¬ 
ing. then the thin-skinned, juicy Florida orange will, 
take its proper place. 
PECULIARITIES OF SOIL AND CLIMATE.— 
People who consider investing in orange groves 
should always spend at least a year in getting 
acquainted with local conditions before they invest. 
Many of the groves which are planted for sale are 
se^ out in- soils such as the white sands, where the 
trees can never thrive. Careful attention and heavy 
fertilizing will bring the young trees up to bearing 
age, which is from four to five years after they are 
set: then with the first small crop of fruit on the 
young trees they are sold to an unsuspecting buyer 
fiom the North. Within a year or two they begin 
to suffer from foot-rot due to the improper soil and 
die-back due to the heavy fertilization, and in a few 
years nothing is left except the bitter memory of 
failure Much of the best orange land on the cehtral 
ridge of Florida contains considerable clay and sub¬ 
soil, which is red or yellow in color. On this soil 
the trees grow more slowly than they do in the 
lighter sand, but are freer from disease and longer 
lived. I found a few fine orange groves on low land, 
for the orange is not so particular as the apple about 
the drainage; still, as a rule, well-drained land is 
necessary, while deep white sand is seldom satis¬ 
factory. Freedom from frost is more a matter of 
local topography than it is of latitude', some sections, 
This young mechanic* lias watched his father at work with the car or tractor and 
is giving his best imitation with the toy bicycle. Some boys show a natural in¬ 
clination for mechanics, and it should always be encouraged. 
like those along Lake Okecliobee, being very sub¬ 
ject to killing frost, while other sections, like the 
region around Fort Myer, directly to tin* west of it. 
suffer much less. The danger of frost in any par¬ 
ticular place can only be learned by consulting local 
records, and no general statement can be made. All 
parts of Florida, however, are subject to frost, even 
down to the Florida keys below the mainland. 
POSSIBILITIES IN CATTLE.—It is quite prob¬ 
able that with a fair chance of development Florida 
will rank as a cattle State rather than as a fruit or 
vegetable producer. On the great undeveloped sec¬ 
tion of the State great numbers of cattle roam on 
the open range. Mark Twain once said that “all 
men were free and equal in three places: the Garden 
of Eden, the Constitution of the United States and 
the Great West before the days of the wire fence.” 
Florida is still without a fence law. but there is no 
particular equality. On the other hand, a very few 
wealthy cattle owners are able to use the public 
land for the grazing of thousands of head of very 
inferior cattle. If a man wants to raise a crop he 
has to fence the other man’s cattle and hogs out of 
it. which is often a difficult matter. If. on the other 
hand, he owns live stock, he is not obliged or ex¬ 
pected to enclose them in a fence. Great efforts 
have been made to pass a law which *would require 
owners of stock to keep them fenced, but so far the 
great cattle owners have defeated such a measure. 
As a result of cattle running at large, they are badly 
infested with tick and the resisting tick fever, which 
is fatal to outside cattle unless they are brought in 
at an early age. Dipping vats are not popular, as 
they give the county officials too much opportunity 
for counting and taxing the cattle which run on the 
fiee range. When a fence law has been put in force 
it will be possible to exterminate the tick and then 
introduce new and improved blood. At the present 
time some improvement is being made by the use of 
Brahma or humped cattle from India, which are 
immune to ticks. The grades and crosses of these 
cattle show a high immunity and are much larger 
and more vigorous than the native cattle. The 
Brahma cattle are colored very much like a Jersey 
and are rather long-legged antUraw-boned, giving a 
high quality of milk. These cross-breds furnish good 
foundation for improvement by the use of Angus or 
other beef breeds. The native grasses which grow in 
among I lie palmetto are very poor and innutritions, but 
many improved grasses are known which can be used 
to supplement the native pastures and feed the cattle 
through the dry months of late Winter and Spring. 
SUGAR CANE.—Japanese cane is a small variety 
of sugar cane, much used for Winter 
pasture. This often yields as much as 
20 tons per acre, and is greatly relished 
by live stock. Another much valued 
new grass is known as Napier grass, 
which grows well in regions where the 
soil is a black muck. Almost incredible 
stories are told of the powers of this 
grass to maintain large numbers of 
live stock, but as might be expected it 
requires plenty of moisture and large 
amounts of plant food. Sugar cane is 
much raised for the manufacture of 
syrup, nearly every farmer having a 
field of this valuable crop. Much of 
this syrup finds a market at the present 
time in the manufacture of moonshine 
whiskey, which seems to be reasonably 
abundant all over the State. Cane 
syrup is another product which might 
be marketed to advantage by a co¬ 
operative association which could guar¬ 
antee uniform quality. As it is. no 
two farmers make just the same grade 
of syrup, and by their better organiza¬ 
tion the big manufacturers are able to 
buy corn in Nebraska, manufacture 
glucose in Jersey City and sell its 
syrup from the shelves of the country 
grocery in Florida, displacing the 
really superior local syrup. 
ORGANIZATION NEEDED.—A vis¬ 
itor from the North would notice at 
once the lack of any organization among 
the farmers. There are excellent 
County Agents, well trained and ener¬ 
getic, but they have no Farm Bureau 
back of them. The Farmers' Union is 
organized in a few places, but it seems 
to an outsider much less well organized than the 
Grange in the Northern States. This may be due to 
the scattered population rather than to the fault of 
the society, but it is certainly true that it lacks the 
force and directness of the Grange or the Dairy¬ 
men's League. The farmers themselves 1 found just 
as intelligent, just as hard-working and in every way 
similar to those I have known in a half dozen 
Northern States, but as yet they are unorganized 
and ineffective in business or politics. 
H. V. BUTTON. 
-The 
Last Season’s Insect Pests 
(Bart TI) 
S UMMARY OF SPRAYING OPERATIONS.- 
the pink spray of lime-sulphur (1 to 40), arse- 
pests of the past year, and which will furnish a 
fairly sure guide for us for the coming season may 
be summed up as follows: (1) The delayed dormant 
spray of lime-sulphur (1 to or 12 or 15) and nieo- 
ine (% pt. to 100 gals) for scale insects and aphids; 
(2) the pink spray of lime-sulphur (1 to 40), arse¬ 
nate of lead (5 lbs paste or 2y> lbs. powdered to 100 
gals.), and in some cases nicotine (•% pt. to 100 gals) 
for scab, eurculio, casebearers, and redbugs: (.1) 
the calyx spray of lime-sulphur (1 to 40) arse¬ 
nate of lead (usual rate),, and nicotine (% pt. to 
