The Ocala evening star., 1915-08-14
TREES
AND OTHER EXPERIMENTS

Editor Star: ! noticed a short edl-
torial in your paper the other day /
concerning eucalyptus trees, recon-
mending the planting Of these trees |
all over the county and telling Us that |
they will grow 400 feet high and 50 |
on. There is always some kind Of a |
plant doomed here. During the last
four years it was first the dasheen,
then the spineIess cactus and now 1t
is the eucalyptus. All Of these plants
have wonderful qualities, so the sales
men tell US, and should be raised ex-
tensively-in their opinion. Being of
an inquisitive turn Of mind, / gen
orally have been experimenting with
the boom plant for several years be
fore the general rush and scramble
sets in and have formed an opinion
which differs from that of the very
much interested salesman
Nv spineless cactus ! received from
the United States experimental sta
ton five years ago. They sent me
five or six varieties which all looked
alike to me and while some of the
leaves had hardly any spines at all,
the rest of them had. The fruit Is
, edible but not good. Very sweet and
, rather insipid. What is the use of
: raising a desert plant in this climate
where we are able TO cultivate quite q
) number of the best forage plants
E The dasheen will turn a dirty purple
1 when cooked and does not look ap
e petizing at all. OF taste there i:
none, and besides it is quite dry anC
e mealy. Nobody would ever prefer i
t to a sweet potato. / have noticed
h that even a self-respecting hog vii
: hesitate to dig it up.
e There were some other widely ad
e vertised things which l have tried
t The running blackberry viii certain
e ly run, over thirty feet in a season
n but refuses to bear fruit. The won
J. derberry found to be an old acquair
j. tance, the common nightshade, solar
um nigrum, which was cOnsidere
10 poisonous before it advanced from
20 weed to a garden fruit. This year
,e tried the coreless tomato, which ha
es more core instead of less.
of But to return to our eucalyptI
tie trees. / wish to state that the majo
an ity of them do not make good shaC
a trees, their foliage being rather loos
n. They grow remarkably fast but a
wv inclined to become spindly and to
it. heavy. Of five eucalyptus, differe
ill varieties, / planted five years ag
es only one is alive today. Three we
frozen to the ground last Novembe
1T when the temperature went down
II. &c degrees. One, the eucalyptus VII
ow malls, became top-heavy and to
ch loose from the ground. The vimina
as variety, by the way, is the only lar
,ck eucalyptus / have seen in this part
,ck the country, near East Palatka. I
ith leaves resemble the weeping willie
his but the tree did not look very orr
ng mental. It's growing only few hu
is dred yards from the st. Johns riN
may account for the fact that it W
not frozen long ago. The only Il
l have left now is of the species eu'
-; lyptus robusta, or Australian mahC
% any. This one was a beautiful spe
tbo men last year with rather heavy /
or iage and bearing beautiful wh
ola flowers. The frost of last Move
-;sb Der killed about five feet of the
oI,, and the ends of all the branches,
orc that even now, in August, the t
CO has not regained it's former size ;
ion beauty. From my experience
dc lieve that eucalyptus are too ten
for this part of Florida and w
planted will prove a disappointing
The question is, what kind o
: plant will be doomed next. Perh
it is time to give the roselle tria
DIR. L. II. van Engelkel
/ to