The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1912-05-22

know the commercial value of the cit
range. AS a laxative and tonic it Is
unexcelled and as a delicious drink it
equals lemonade.
We have had two crops from the
Rusk citrange and have several other
varieties. There is no market as yet,
for 1t is a comparatively new fruit
Can Have the Luxuries.
Why should those with an album
dance of money be the only ones to
have rare fruit when we can raise it
| ourselves? Why should strawberries
in March, April and May be consid-
cred a luxury when by a little care we
can have them? How much nicer II
| is to gather them wet and cool with
the morning dew, gather them by the
| bucketful. How much nicer this is
than to buy them by the box, often
dry and shriveled or beginning to de-
| cay, with a layer of large ones on
top and the rest very much smaller.
One kind of fruit follows another
from early April until November, the
Japanese persimmon ending the list.
! Ihat leaves us but a short time with
| out fresh fruit, and with our fruit
| closets filed with home canned fruit.
| jelly, preserves and pickles all home
! grown we surely have no reason for
| complaining. 1t is the same or better
with vegetables. We can have new
| Irish potatoes, English peas, celery,
1
| April and each month brings its own
| product. We can have something
| fresh and green every month in the
! year.
1 have been told that English peas
and sweet corn will not grow here. I
| know that both do well here If planted
| at the right time and cultivated prop
| erly. English peas must be planted in
| time to mature before hot weather.
| We picked the last Of ours the 2Sth OF
April. The vines are now spaded un-
| der and the bed planted to peppers.
A second crop Of this delicious vege-
| table can be grown late in the fall
Just a word as to fertilizer. This
| soil, as you know, is very deficient in
groanic matter and if anything is
grown this must be supplied. The best
way to get this humus is to plant
| velvet beans, as they are rank growers,
| and when they are wilted by the first
! frost turn them under. Uproot every
weed and all crabgrass before it goes
| to seed and spade them under. If we
return each year to the soil as much
| or more than we take from 1t we will
/ build up even the white sand to a fer
| tile condition. All vines, sweet potato,
pea vines, carrot tops and everything
of the kind should be spaded under
while green. If, in addition to this,
| barnyard fertilizer is used in album
| dance the manufacturer of commercial
/ fertilizer will not get so much of our
| money and our land viii not get burned
| out.
Commercial fertilizer feeds the
plants, but to use it intelligently one
must know just what food the plants
| need and then know what per cent of
| such food the different fertilizers con-
! tain.
| I read recently in the agricultural
papers reports of damage done 70
/ a. ~ rasv n
| standard. In a recent report | see the
| statement made that the product of
! the Sanford celery fields is now of
very inferior quality. II does not
| bleach readily and dealers in the large
cities claim that 1t will not hold up
| until it can be sold. This has res1lt-
| ed In general dissatisfaction with Flor
| da celery, and many of the dealers as
| sert that they will not handle it an
| other season. The growers in Sanford
| have for years been using from three
| to four tons of commercial fertilizer
to the acre.
Wood ashes, barnyard fertilizer,
green crops turned under and lime to
| sweeten when necessary make first
class fertilizer.
I have heard 1t said that commercial
| fertilizer was preferable because one
using 1t has no weeds and so it saves
| cultivation. Weeds are the farmers
best friend, as they help to add humus
| to the soil If turned under, and they
force the farmer to cultivate and lack
| of cultivation is the crime Of modern
farming, especially in Florida.
Air and sunshine are needed to fer
tilize. All consists essentially of
| oxygen 20 per cent and nitrogen 79
/ per cent with about 1-2 per cent Of
/ carbonic acid and always trace of
| water.
i You see the air contains a large per-
1 centage of that most expensive ele-
| ment of fertility, nitrogen; air also
/ contains oxygen. Admit the oxygen to
/ the soil and it at once proceeds to
i break down the old combinations and
To form new ones. 1t will even at
/ tack the rock particles of which the
soil consists and will aid in tearing
i them apart and in making them solua-
! BILE. Air. rain and sunshine can be
L made TO produce plant food from the
raw elements in the soil; the liberation
of the plant food goes on as long as
fresh supplies of ain are introduced
into the soil.
Providence or nature are often
blamed for crops reduced or shortened
by droutf, but not justly, for the
blame lies with those who fail to keep
up the moisture holding vegetable
/ matter In their soil and who fail to
cultivate so as to get all the proper
ties of plant food from sun, rain and
Il air.
I have said nothing about the orna-
mental. but what is home without
flowers? Here in this section Of Flor
IDA the choicest of hot house roses
can be grown out of doors. They are
perfectly hardy and one can have them
almost the entire year. It would take
too long to tell of the beauties of
flowers and shrub that can be grown
here and that makes the home thing
OF beauty. but if resident of Florida
does not have an abundance and va
riety of fruit. flowers and vegetables,
It is either because he does not know
how or will not take the trouble, for
Florida Is the land of plenty. All pos
sibilities are in this soil.