The Florida agriculturist., 1906-04-25

there is no frost here to make the
sides cave in, the bitches are sliced
down with a spade, with very little
slope When weeds are allowed to go
to seed it is, of course, quite an eX
pense to keep all the open bitches
open at all times and seasons. Close
cropping is followed when the fertili-
zers are SO expensive. AS an illuStra-
ton, one man remarked, il crop of
lettuce was cleaned from a field we
were passing through, the day before
| stopped in aStOniShment, and eX-
claimed, why, my good friend! you
surely don't mean from this nice field
of wax beans?'' "les, sir: These
beans were planted between the rows
of lettuce, and after the lettuce was
off and trash cleaned up we ran the
cultivator through, and the beans just
spread out during the last night so
as you see."
To work Oh this ''high-pressure,"
plan, ton of fertilizer, costing $50,
Is often used on a single crop.
Florida cabbage is also away up,
owing, we are told, to the fact that
the cabbage crop in the North last
Florida 1 am told it is no unusual
thing at certain seasons to have a five
pound cabbage sell for as much as a
tive-pound pineapple. Well, L can say
from experience that a nice, hard,
crisp, Jersey Wakefield cabbage grown
here in Florida is about as nice as a
pineapple. We saw fields of cabbage
so large they almost went away off
l.
here only in winter. This truck-farm-
ing can not be well carried on very
far away from the railroad and steam
boat lines, and good roads to the ship
ping points are almost as necessary.
Although much time and money had
been spent on the roads, we found
them in some places pretty bad; but
this was on account of the unusual
winter rains. The bitches for drain
age are usually along the rOadsides,
and sometimes these are very deep,
ten feet or more, making it expensive
for bridges to get into the field. OF
course, rotation of crops is desirable,
and they are just finding out that
oranges and other citrus fruits often
do well on this ground so good for
the truck business.
NOW, please uOH Iuluk dll
blundering when L tell you we drove
through a grapefruit orchard of 222
acres-23,0O trees in all. OF course,
this great orchard cost a lot of money.
| think the trees are now about eight
years old, and although the crops
affOrd a fair interest on the outlay, the
owners have not as yet received what
| it cost them, but the prospect is fair
that they soon will. A lemOn-orchard
we visited later has a still larger acre
age.
Now l have a strange story to tell
you 1t illustrates how possible it is
in this world of ours to find that,
through Gods wisdom and providence,
our enemies may prove eventually to
be our best friends in disguise. Most
of you have heard of the white fly
that ruins orange orchards and other
stuff almost the world over. OF late
it has been getting into greenhouses
in the North, and, unlike the green
fly" tobacco fumes and stems do not
seem to trouble it. Well, greenhouse
men and gardeners have also been
troubled during damp weather with
snails, and there has been much talk
in our florists journals as to how to
get rid of them. One writer said the
best or only way was to hand-pick
them at night, with a 1antern-they
work only at night. In some countries
xrn a,.a told SnaiIS apn SU1ch choice deli