The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1878-09-18

however, found Baltimore the best
market, as the expenses to New
York are SO much greater. He
ships in a quarter of bushel and
sixth of bushel crates, which he
makes upon his place, at his own
saw mill, costing him about eight
cents a crate. He has the fruit gath
cred by hand by negro women, and
laid carefully in the crates. The
crates are then culled by careful
hand, and over ripe and imperfect
peaches are removed None sbut
solid. perfect fruit is allowed to be
shipped. Fruit Just ripe and mel
low is sold in the home market here.
The imperfect fruit is given to the
hogs. The ripe fruit, too soft for
shipment or home sale, is made into
peach leather. The peach is pressed
through sieve, getting rid of the
skin and stones. The moisture is
then dried out of the peach, and the
pulp is made into sheets Of pure,
sweet peach leather" as it is called,
infinitely better than dried peaches,
with all the flavor Of the fruit thor
oughly preserved. Adding water
and boiling gives you peach for pre-,
serves, pastry, sauce or rolls.
In the management of his hands
DIR. Hape is very successful. He car
ries on all his enterprises OH shares,
giving his laborers an interest in the
crop. In this way he makes every
thing pay. He gets the most work
by this method out of his hands. His
grapevines are very thrifty, and well
cared for. They are staked and tied
up strongly, and pruned judiciously.
He has $50 Scuppernong vines, but
does not speak favorably of his ex-
perience with them. His vineyards
show care and skillful attention. He
has all the common varieties, but
believe prefers the Concord and Del
aware. His pear and apple orchards
show the same care. The blight has
been making havoc in the pear trees
in this section. For some reason
other DR.. Hape's trees show an almost
entire exemption from it. In his
large orchard l noticed only two
cases of blight. His trees are very
vigorous and thrifty. The most at
tractive sight on his farm is the nur-
sery of young fruit trees. He has
fully 10000 young trees in this nur-
sery, which covers an extent of over
twenty acres and finer, more vigorous,
healthy young trees / have never
seen. In addition he has fully TO-
600, young stocks ready for grating
next season. He pays especial atten-
ton to his stocks. and the result is
that he has always very superior trees.
He raises all the finest kind of straw
berries-the Monarch of the West,
Eclipse, Parmlee's Crescent Seeding,
etc. He made $500 this Spring sell
ling the berries from small bed and
said that he could as easily have sold
a $1,000 worth. lie says that any
man who will raise early and fine
truit can find sale for it.
The most signal achievement that
DR.. IEape has performed, however,
and Of which he is evidently the most
proud, is the retaining of about
twenty-five acres Of useless marsh
land by underground draining, max
ing it the most valuable bottom land,
of a productive capacity that can
hardly be estimated, He has done
this at a cost Of not much more than
$3.50 1t has been a marvellous piece
Of work His drains are all covered.
He has tried several styles Of drains,,
the log drain, the rock drain and
the plank drain, the latter q tri-
angular drain. AS he has his own
mill he finds the latter the cheapest
drain. The worthless bog has been
brought into the highest state of .er
tility, and saw crops of cabbages
and tomatoes that can not be beaten.
DIR. Hape breeds the Essex swine,
saying that while not so prolific, they
are more quiet and more easily kept
than any other breed. He has fine
place, and has done wonders with it.
Among his improvements is a fish
pond full of fish. He keeps up with
all the new varieties of fruit OF every
| kind, giving tn orough and scientific
tests. He takes genuine interest in
the cause of agricultural progress.
| and will grow in fame and populari-
ty as a fruit farmer.-Coo<a,try Gen
! tIeDsaza.
|