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THE SOUTHERN WORLD, DECEMBER 1, 1882.
86
HOHE LIVE IN FLORIDA.
BY HELEN HABCOURT.
Seventh roper.
Jinking n Home.
Really, this subject seems inexhaustible,
and in fact it is so, for there is none more
important, nor more susceptible of new ideas
than this, of making a home that will satisfy
heart, mind and body, and conduce to con
tent and cheerfulness and health.
We have already wandered around consid
erably out of doors, that is a way we have of
doing in Florida three-fourths of our time,
at least, and, consequently, we are not quite
prepared to go in yet. We have told some
what of the wealth of beautiful flowers and
vines that may be gathered around the
house, and trained over the porches, but we
have not yet mentioned one of the most im
portant, and by far the most fragrant. The
evening jassamine I it is impossible for the
Northern mind to conceive from its own ex-
peiience, the strong, thrifty growth of this
much-prized plant in this genial clime. The
plant, as it is known there, is a frail, deli
cate thing, of slow and precarious growth,
almost impossible to rear outside of conser
vatories, “a pampered, aristocraticdarling,”
over whose wayward blossoming there is
much rejoicing and much boasting. We
remember a few years back, that our whole
family was summoned one evening, in great
baste, to the house of a neighbor to view the
bloom of the cherished|evening jassamine,
growing in a small flower-pot, and to enjoy
the delicous perfume it exhaled, we were
made happy by the presentation of a slip for
rooting that we might “go and do likewise.”
But now, to see this same fragrant, delicate
night-bird among flowers os we see it in
Florida!
Three years ago a tiny slip, not six inches
tall, rooted in a box, was set at the end of
our ten feet wide piazza, fortunately, as the
result proved, it was placed near the middle.
At the present time, although in the winter
of 1879-80 it was killed back almost to the
ground, that wonderful jassamine forms a
dense, fan-shaped shade all over the end of
the piazza, a foot or more in thickness and
reaching several feet above the piazza roof,
almost all the year it is in bloom, and as
darkness settles down upon the earth, its lit
tle star-like flowers, gathered in clusters,
peep out to see what the stars look like, and
toss their fragrant greeting abroad in the
air. Then, if never before, we understand
wbat is meant by the “ air being heavy with
perfume.” Sometimes it is almost too
powerful and then we indulge a wish that
our much-valued jassamine was a little fur
ther away, but usually we are not disposed
to quarrel with it.
Of course the various plants and vines are
the better for suitable food; we don't expect
people or horses to work on, day after day
without nutriment, yet some people do ex
pect their vegetable servants, which are liv
ing things as well, to exist and grow with
out food. Their requirements are modest;
on hammock land they will require no help
for a few years, but on pine land they will
need more at first than later on ; there you
see, is the difference between hammock and
pine land, as those who are ahead of their
times, are beginning to discover; one, better
at the start, deteriorates; the other, poor at
the start, constantly improves. If some
muck, rotten leaves, cow-chips or stable
manure, can be spaded into the flower-beds
before setting out the plants, so much the
better, but if the plants are ready first, this
can be done later on, although, of course,
more care must then be exercised, not to dis
turb the newly anchored roots.
A wonderful tonic and invigorator of the
growth of plants, not only in Florida but
everywhere, is a weekly or semi-weekly dose
of liquid manure,made thus: two buckets or
twenty pounds of stable manure to one bar
rel of water, let it stand for twenty-four
hours before using. It should be of the color
of weak coffee when applied, and sometimes
it is necessary to dilute it to attain this
color. An ounce or two of carbolic acid is a
great improvement as it serves to discour
age the " Meddlesome Matties ” so numer
ous among the insect families.
A heavy mulch of leaves, grass or pine
needles, will be of double advantage, not
only retaining moisture, and an even tem
perature for the roots of treesand plants, but
also preventing the continuous and excessive
growth of weeds, which, proverbially ram
pant all over the world, are not backward in
asserting themselves in Florida.
Weeds, we say, yet after all what are
weeds T The fact is it all depends on where
one stands. How we cherish and cq|x gera
niums to grow, buying plants and seeds from
the nurseryman, yet in Australia, their na
tive land, they are weeds, and regarded as
nuisances. Our Northern florists advertise,
among others, the rose geranium, and their
customers think highly of them; here in
Florida they run rampant. Put a tiny slip
from a boquet into a Florida bed, and in a
few months it will be trespassing on its
neighbors’ domains ; it will travel right and
left, and actually become a runner. It keeps
one busy lopping off great arm-loads or
straggling branches; but we don't quarrel
with it after all. The leaves are fragrant,
and form a pretty addition to boquets, the
mass of green is always acceptable to the
eyes, and when a geranium is planted here
and there, about the grounds and trained
into a mound-shape, the effect is very pleas
ing, but still, these geraniums are in a meas
ure *• weeds ” in Florida; and Ijow the North
ern gardner sows seeds year after year of the
phlox and petunia; in Florida all that Is
necessary is to once sow a small paper of
these seeds, and henceforth, year after year,
phlox and petunias, greet you everywhere,
nodding their gay little heads in the grass
plats, the flower-beds, the corn-field, then
you see, they become “ weeds,” it is the
same with the cypress vine, the bona nox,
and in fact with almost every plant that
has seeds. It is wonderful how persistently
they sow themselves broadcast. There is a
miniature portulacca, with pink flowers
about a quarter of an inch in diameter, a na
tive of the soil, that is rather pretty, but be
comes a nuisance because it degenerates into
a weed, and keeps one constantly on the war
path.
The ease with which delicate plants,
guarded and cherished at the North, perpet
uate themselves in Florida, and imitate the
example of the famous Topsey, who was not
brought upbut “just growed," is a source of
surprise to natives of the more chilly States,
but it is readily traced to itscause—no freez
ing to kill the germs of the tender seeds.
One of the most striking and distinctively
tropical plants that one can find to set out
in the Florida flower garden, is the native
“ yucca,” or as it is generally called the
“ Spanish bayonet” This is a curious plant
found in the hammocks, and bears trans
planting to pine land very well. It is formed
by a straight spine, as it were, on which are
thickly set, long, narrow, stiff-edged leaves,
which droop downward and are armed at
the point with a sharpe spine, whence its
name, “Spanish bayonet." It often attains
a height of ten or twelve feet, and here and
there, especially near the top, short stubs
project, which, being detached and planted,
will soon root and start out in life on their
own account. This plant is an ornament of
itself, but when, in June usually, it sends
upward one or more tall stalks, three or four
of them sometimes, thickly draped with
large, bell-like flowers, what shall we say 7
It is then a beautiful object that one never
tires of looking at, and its showy plumes at
tract the eye from a long distance. But we
have dealt with the (esthetic part of our sub
ject long enough; (esthetic yet nto in this
case useless, for one’s home cannot be made
too attractive.
But it must have its creature comforts
too,for we are of the earth “ earthy." Not
one of the least of these is the water supply.
There are a few houses in Florida, whose
owners are wealthy enough to spend money
ad libitum, where there are large tanks on the
roof, into which water is pumped from a
lake or well by means of a windmill, pipes
leading from the tank conducting water
throughout the dwelling. But these conve
nient contrivances are not for people of ordi-
dinary means, for whose benefit these papers
are intended. They must look to other
ways of getting water. In a few localities
only, well water is not good, being hard from
the underlying limestone rock; but all
through the rolling pine lands, the water ob
tained from the wells is aa pure as crystal
and soft, none better could be desired.
During the summer months it is not as cool
as the Northern taste could wish, bred up as
it is, with the idea that ice in the summer, is
a necessity. In fact, this lack of ice is at first
one of the settler's greatest deprivations, but
with this, as with all things, time effects a
cure, and by and by the water seems to grow
cooler, and rarely fails to quench the sum
mer thirst. One could almost declare, after
the first summer, that it actually has become
cooler, so powerful is custom. It is possible
too, to make a decided change in the tem
perature of the water by keeping that in
tended for drinking’in those large earthen
ware jars that are manufactured for the pur
pose ; water jars they call them. The writer
has seen them in use in South America, and
they are equally useful in Florida, drawing
the waterovernightand allowing it to stand
out where the night air will blow over it, is
a good way to secure a cool morning drink.
In the fall, winter, and spring months, the
water is quite cool enough tor any one, and
often “ makes one’s teeth ache.”
As to the depth at which water is met with
it afl depends on location. If dug on a de
cided knoll, thirty or forty feet are not un
common before the water level is reached.
On lesser knolls (it is very unusual to see a
Florida home that la not built on a “ rise,")
water is often found at from eight to twelve
feet. Of course the water level varies with
the wet or dry season, and so it isalways best
to dig, if possible, when the lakelets around
about have reached their minnimum; if
you cannot do this, the well will have to be
deepened as the surrounding lakes lower
their waters. It costs from fifty to seventy-
five cents per foot to have the well dug, and
until clay is reached, the sides must he
curbed and the cost of planking must be
added to the sum total. Usually the well for
family use will not altogether cost more than
eight to ten dollars. As a rule, the bucket,
rope and pulley are the means employed to
obtain the-water. Pumps are, as yet, a
rarity, not quite so much as they were a few
years ago, but still far more so than they
should be, with a due regard for the patient
workers, on whom the burden of hauling up
the heavy buckets from the depths of the
well, usually falls. There is quite work
enough for the women of a family to do,
without this needless and heavy task being
added.
So rare were pumps when we came to
Sumter county, four years ago, that ours wns
the first one for a circuit of some miles. So
great a curiosity was our modest “Cucum
ber” that our humbler neighbors made
many a pilgrimage to its shrine, and opened
their eyes in wonder at the ease with which
the “ waters drawed up.” They had never
seen, nor heard, nor dreamt of such a won.
derful thing. Our colored washerwoman
had to be taught how to pump water, and
her shy and awkward attempts to work the
handle, were ludicrous in the extreme. It
was the same with the plowman coming in
from the field hot and thirsty. They would
look helplessly at “that 'ere queer post”
guarding the well, and cautiously touch the
handle and start back amazed at the ease
with which it moved. Told to raise and
tower it, they would lift it slowly a few
inches, and then as carefully drop it, look
ing bewildered at the spout, where they were
told the water would appear, failed to deliver
up its treasure. Then we would sally forth
to the rescue, and a delighted grin would
dawn upon their dusky faces, as the .clear,
steady stream poured out.
“Fore de Lawd, dat’s powerful smart I”
“ Lawd’s sake, hit is 1”
And after that we used to tremble for the
life of our valves and piston as they rattled
up and down to satisfy a strangely frequent
thirst, so frequent that at last it compelled a
remonstrance.
We repeat, every well should be topped by
a pump, and every pump should be handy
to the kitchen, if not actually inside its
walls. Every housewife’s work is hard
enough without the unnecessary addition of
hauling up heavy buckets of water. A sink
under the spout to catch and carry away
waste water, with a trough leading to a half
hogshead sunk in the ground, will be found
of great advantage, not only in saving the
carrying away of heavy pans of dish-water,
but also in preserving the latter for use as a
fertilizer. Let the reservoir be emptied
every afternoon toward sunset, the best time
always for watering trees. Dash the soapy
water around the fruit trees within reach,
not too close to the tree, for the true feeding
rootlets are some distance from it, and you
will be surprised to see how the trees thus
treated will outstrip the others.
It is not a goo4.plan to set out orange or
lemon trees too near the house, yet we are
all apt to make this mistake. The trees look
so small when set out that it is hard to real
ize that In a few years time they will be tow
ering towards the house-top, and their
branches spreading wider and wider each
year.
A case in point Is that of a neighbor, who
twelve years ago, in a country then unset
tled, planted orange and lemon trees and
built his house in the midst of them. For
years past those trees have been crowding
the house, so that it is entirely hidden save
the roof, their branches rubbing against the
walls, reaching through the open windows,
and so shutting out sunshine and air, that
now it has become imperative either to re
move the too vigorous trees, or build a new
house further out in the one only direction
left unoccupied by them, and the latter has
been chosen as the lesser evil.
Forty feet Is quite near enough to set an
orange or lemon tree to one's house ; nearer
will surely be repented of sooner or later,
and then the trees bearing by that time, will
have to be moved,.and all profit from them
lost for several years to come, and only those
who have tried it can tell the immense
amount of courage required to move a bear
ing tree.
Peach, fig and pear trees, and guavas and
limes, grape vines and bananas, these are
the fruits lo scatter around the house, these
and flowers and shade trees and grass, surely
they are quite enough without the larger
growing trees, whose proper place is in the
grove where they may spread and stretch
their great thorny arms without knocking
down tne house or breaking the windows.
Qrape vines trained on canopy arbors, afford
a pleasant shade and it is ornamental as well
as useful to run an arbor on each side of the
walk leading from the house to the chicken
yard, an arbor with a top, and train grape
and other vines over it.
The chicken yard should not be too far
from the house, and unless it opens on a
woodland where the fowls can range, it
should be of ample dimensions, for they will
not keep healthy unless they hare plenty of
room to range. The yard should be enclosed
by a picket fence, high if the common Flori
da chickens are to be kept in it, for they are
veritable “gad-abouts” and are as quick to
skim over a five foot fence as to pick up a
grain of corn. Select the site for the chicken
yard with a view to convert it into a veget
able or fruit garden, after the chickes have
fertilized it for two or three years. It will
be the richest part of your land. Let the
chicken house be built of slats, placed about
one inch apart; this will allow necessary
ventilation and yet be tight enough to pre
vent the inroads of marauding skunks and
'possums, both of which are sufliciently bold
and numerous enough to render precoution
desirable. Balked of their prey by other
means they will even condescend to “grub"
for it, and if bottom boards are not sunk a
few inches in the ground, will dig below the
slats and effect an entrance. But with the
precautions named and a tight roof, not an
open one as some of the old natives will con
tend for, you may snap your fingers at the
four-footed enemies of your feathered prop
erty, and if there be any near neighbors of
the “colored persuasion” whose love for
chickens is proverbial, a padlock will put an
effectual stop to their nocturnal depreda
tions.
Fowls of all kinds, and almost all breeds,
do well in Florida and there is very little
sickness among them; the Houdan variety
is the only one that does not seem to thrive
when transferred to a new home in the
semi-tropics. Hawks make sad havoc some
times among young broods that are allowed
to have free range, but if kept in a small
yard made for that purpose and with strings
running across it here and there, high enough
not to interfere with any one walking there,
no hawk will make way with the young
chicks. It is a singular fact that a hawk will
not fly down below a string. In our own
experience, we lost dozens of our downy lit
tle pets, until learning of this device, we
adopted it, and thenceforth not a single
hawk swooped down into the chicken yard.
The chicks were cept there, protected by the
strings, until about three months old, when
they were turned out upon the world, big
enough and strong enough to take care of
themselves.
And now for the present we are done
rambling out of doors, and shall proceed to
look around inside, and discuss the question
so perplexing to settlers, “Of what to bring,
and what not to bring ” for household and
for personal use.
Cheerfulness exerts an important influence
upon the health as well as contributing much
to the happiness of mankind. The cheerful
man, woman, or child is more likely to be
healthy than the gloomy one. Cheerfulness
promotes digestion of the food, quickens the
circulation of the blood, and facilitates the
proper performance of all the healthy func
tions of the body. The food eaten with
pleasant companions is less likely to disa
gree with the dyspeptic than that eaten in
solitude. Some dyspeptic peribns have
often remarked, that when dining with
friends and agreeable acquaintances, whose
companionship cheered them, they might
eat freely, without subsequent barm, of sub
stances which were sure to occasion distress
when eaten alone. Not a few have noticed
when feeling despondent or feeble while
alone at home, the arrival of pleasant ac
quaintances, or a visit to friends, would at
once make them cheerful and cause them to
feel like new creatures.