The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1910-02-03
AMONG THE PINES
Continued from page /

drop in price entails heavy loss.
OF course, you can plant again at any
time, but every planting brings the
same cost. l will not try to explain
what fertilizer is. The farmers about
Sank Centre are intelligent readers
and know all about it. 1 will only
say that there are different kinds foA
different crops.
The banana requires only cotton
seed meal. AS to the results of fer
tilizer they are wonderful. They new
er transplant trees. When it is de-
sired to make change, they dump
a peck of it in the desired direction,
and in a few days the tree is there,
and if it is desired to move it fur
Their, they repeat the operation. A
large tree can, in this manner, be
removed something like half a mile
per month.
1t has also been noticed that the
average height of men here has gone
up from feet, inches, to feet,
1 inch, the result simply of getting
the stuff in their shoes. The tale Of
Jack and the bean stauk is rapidly
being realized in this section. Nature,
however, unassisted, does some won
derful stunts down here. For in
stance, when the century plant gets
ready to bloom, in single week it
sends up stem 25 feet which in ona
day bursts like a rocket into spray
of bloom. There are several of them
in bloom here at this time. Don't
believe the old fable about their
blooming every 100 years; they bloonl
whenever they get a hunch The
bamboo, also, makes its years growth
in two weeks, rising to forty feet
The country l have just been speak
ing of is known as the Redlands or
Homestead country. / have made two
trips down there. The soil under the
surface rock is a read clay loan and
is, so far as my experience goes,
the only soil in Florida. The stone
here is nearer the surface, is soft
on the under side and the pores of
the stone are filled with the red
clay and seemingly, as they disinte-
crate, resolve themselves into soil.
The native wild growths are num-
erous and wonderful There are wild
pears and beans of various kinds use
full as a substitute for hay, which
is not grown here: The velvet bean
will attack a dead pine stub and in
year or two will climb to it's top
and encircle it with a mass of vege-
tation 6 or s feet in diameter. This
bean is eagerly locked for by bird
or beast, and for fattening swine can
not be excelled. The cowpear is a
prolific vine, and is used to feed
cows, chickens and pigs. The stalks
are used to mulch the fruit bearing
trees. Acorns grow on a ground oak
or running vine and are the staple
food of deer, turkey and quail.
The pine woods yield on an av-
erage of $50 bushels of compile roots
without cultivation. These roots are
like carrot in shape and yield about
81 per cent of the best grade OF
starch, while the seed, about like
corn, is a favorite food of various
birds and animals. The cassowara or
arrowroot is tree-like plant, and
its bulbs are often two or three feet
long. A starch plant here would do
thriving business. The castor oil
plant here grows wild and to height
of 25 to 80 feet. / saw IL year old
boy climb to the top of one.
The people of the Redlands are gen.
orally of good education, eager read
ers and of unbounded hospitality.
They have their literary and musical
clubs and are nearly all church gOers;;'
in fact the church has no rival. There
is neither saloon, pool room nor any
other device to allure the men or
boys, and parents can go to rest with
no misgivings. This Arcadian sim
plicity, unknown to us of the North,
is a beautiful thing and makes life
doubly worth living.
A five acre home among these good
" folk will cost as follows: land,
$4,000; clearing, breaking and set
ting out 500 grape fruit, orange or
pear trees, $1,000 per acre; total $780,
90. House, $5OO.OO to 100000. There
are some bearing orchards that can
he bought at a very low figure. For
this small investment of IL or Is hun
dred dollars, you can live in climate
unequaled anywhere. In four years,
you can begin to get returns. or If
you buy the bearing grove at once.
A four year old tree will produce
from 6 to IL boxes of grape fruit at
an average profit of $3.50 per box;
at five years, 15 boxes; IS trees to
the acre, say 100 boxes Perhaps thi
is a large estimate. But if you could