The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1914-04-24
PICKED OUT
PALATkA.

bee man who spends his winters in
Florida, and writes things about the
State for his "Gleanings in Bee Cul-
ture," must have had our city and
county in mind when he sums up the
situation in a recent issue of his mag
azine, in these words:
"The three elements that determine
values on land in Florida are water
front, proximity to good town and
productiveness."
Palatka has water front and Put
nam county has water front-miles
and miles of ton a river one of
the greatest in the South-navigable
for ships to the ocean and the worlds
markets. What county in the State
has more available water front?
Prof. Charles N. Mooney, who is in
charge Of the corps of experts engag
ed in making a survey of the soils of
Putnam county for the U. S. Depart
ment of Agriculture, in an address
at the recent rally of farmers in the
Court House in Palatka, said there
was no poor soil in Putnam county or
in Florida. Some soils are better
adapted to raising certain crops than
other soils, but there was no soil, no
matter how poor it seemed to be, but
would yield the products adapted to
that kind of soil. 1t is merely know
ing what to grow under proper con-
dition.
Down on the East Coast of Florida
the white sand over which handker-
chief can be passed without getting
discolored, the best pineapples in the
world are being grown. Something
grows c.. oil kinds of soils, except in
the white sand, and man is raising
pineapples in it. If pineapples can
be grown where there is no native
growth, why cannot some useful plant
be grown where wild vegetation is
found? Fit the plant to the soil.
Centers of activity in various prod
ucts are to be found in all parts of
Florida. When it is fully realized
that there is more in the man than
in the land" and that there's good
deal in the land, what a wonderful
state this will be.
More varieties of wild vegetation
can be found in Florida than in any
other State in the Union. More vari-
cites of trees, double the number of
any other State, grow in Florida. Wa
Ter constitutes two-thirds of nearly
all plant forms of life. We have the
water, more in rainfall and more
available in underground supply, than
any other state. Nitrogen is neces-
sary to plant life and tons of it exist
in the air over every square mile of
Florida soil, and what other state has
twelve months of warmth-of grow
ing weather-and warmth is neces-
sary to plant growth.
A thin envelope of soil spreads over
the rugged and wrinkled face of our
planet From this soil, man gets his
food and the material for his clothing
and his dwelling. The more knowl
edge man possesses and the more he
uses his knowledge in cultivating the
soil, the more varied and useful are
his achievements.
Everything starts from the ground,
so that the farmer is the big chief,
after all. He feeds the millionaire
and the tramp, creates demand for
the products of the mill and the shop.
Stop his supply train running to the
cities for a week and great distress
would follow. A universal failure of
his crops for one year and famine
would depopulate the earth. Take
him out of the game and there
wouldn't be any game.
Now that things have gotten out
of balance and are running every
which way, and politicians in mix,
I'D, the world must turn to the far
mer and take new start. The old
stvle farmer who refuses to learn
modern ways won't do, but the iAdi-
cations are that the boys will astab-
lish a new base upon which to build
an age of still more wonderful pros
perity. See what the boys are doing
with corn and pigs, and girls with
their gardens.
You can't destroy land. You may
rob it until it won't do much, but it
can be revived and made better than
ever. Plants can be fed and nourish-
ed as we'll as animals.
How dare a man to call any part
or parcel of Gods Universe poor and
useless? 1.-The granite rocks disor-
ganize to feed the hungry moss they
bear" There was a time when men
lived in caves and thought the earth
fiat with four corners. Belated men,
slow of intellect, as IN the cave-age
days, are still with US.
The Creator puts one thing here
and another there, on the different
continents, but in Florida He has put
more of His native plants than in any
other part of American continental
territory, and the United States gov
eminent has more experiment sta
tons in Florida, four of them, to try
out plants brought from other parts
of the world, than in any other