PORTO RICO

FARM 

KNOWLEDGE

 A Complete Manual of Successful Farming Written by Recognized Authorities in All Parts of the Country; Based on Sound Principles and the Actual Experience of Real Farmers- "The Farmer's

Own Cyclopedia"

PREPARED EXCLUSIVELY FOR 

SEARS, ROEBUCK AND CO.

EDITED BY

E. l. D. SEYMOUR, B.S.A.

PREPARED EXCLUSIVELY FOR

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 

GARDEN CITY NEW YORK

 1918

                                                         

       

1PORTO RICO

THE island of Porto Rico, oblong in shape, about 36 miles from north to south and 100 miles from east to west, is the farthest end of the Greater Antilles. It lies between 65 and 68 degrees west longitude and 18 and 181/2 degrees north latitude and is about 1,500 miles east of New Orleans.

  Surface and soil.  The greater part of Porto Rico is rough and broken, yet the highest elevations are only about 3,000 feet.  The main range of mountains extends from east to west. Of the 3,600 miles making up the total area, about one

tenth consists of islands bordered by low lands of greater or less extent.   Inland there are many deep and narrow valleys.  Much of the soil of Porto Rico has been formed by the decay of volcanic rock like that forming the backbone of the island, yet the soil varies greatly.  In respect to area, red clay is one of the principal soils.  Foothill soils, bordering the plains, are dark in color. The soil of the mangrove swamps contain coral sand with some organic matter.  Near the seacoast there is much coral sand. Most of the rocks of Porto Rico are limestone, but there is some granite, marble and sandstone. Practically

all of the island was once heavily timbered, but most of the timber has been removed. 

thanks to

TITO COLLAZO 

for scanning

the illustrations

at left

this will continue as those

old film series soon.

here or in 

caribbean botanical review 

                   

DESTROYING THE EARTH AND PROUD OF IT!

I STILL enjoy reading old magazines and newspapers, not from Puerto Rico, goes without saying. On March 28, TIME magazine publishes: Your Next Job: Made in India or China, on page 58.

Thirty years ago the average person in China or India could afford almost nothing beyond basic food and almost nothing beyond basic food and other simple necessities of life.  That poverty was a problem for all of us.  With so little spending power in the developing world, the global economy was dependent on handful of wealthy nations, especially the U.S.  Today however China and India have
become a new source  of growth for the global economy. 


Hundreds of millions of Chinese and Indians can now splurge on Sony LCD TV's, Australian steaks and Apple iPhones. Last year, Indians and Chinese bought 19.9 million new passenger vehicles, 70% more than Americans did according to J.D Power.  This new bonanza for consumer goods increases demand for copper, cotton and other natural resources; the machinery to manufacture those goods; the ships and trucks to transport them; and the people to design and sell them.
The result in higher sales and bigger profits for companies such as Boeing and Rio Tinto, as well as more jobs.

While I read this four or five times to make sure that I understood, not the meaning, but the implications, I could not believe it.  The days of  international mortgage and banking scams in the first world seem forgotten.

The article does not mention electricity, food, housing, health, education and fresh water for Chinese and Indians. The cultural defects defining USA are evident. Buy and sell. Everything else will be solved by itself.

Besides all this bonanza being hypothetical, the truth is that cheap labor is what developers are constantly searching for . Cheap labor, cheap natural resources.

What is next? A house with a picket fence with a lawn, a TATA in every driveway, hamburgers, tbones and hot dogs for every Chinese and Indian?

The sad reality is that ironic or not, that may be the intention. When I check housing projects in the third world, (what better example than my wrapped in concrete/asphalt fatherland) ALL are the same no matter where on earth.


Forgotten are cultural values, the toxic fumes, the 24/7 traffic jams, the impossibility to construct enough highways for the vehicular volume.  I have seen a traffic jam in China in some frontier, a hundred miles long during one week in the news.


Development is always the same, less arable land, less food, less water. Opportunities for insignificant percentages of the population with total destruction of the environment.  Puerto Rico have  set a great example in every department mentioned. .


Unfortunately, the imbeciles making it possible: lawyers, bankers, engineers, architects, academicians and politicians still speak/write and sing about the beauty of this asphalted hell without any quality of life, where traffic jams, floods, crime, unemployment dominate the islanders life.

that is that

Dario apagueis la luh.

ANOTHER RAINY DAY

IT HAS been raining for the last thirty five days on a off. A pain in the arse, if you ask me. I do not understand the infatuation with rain forests, its flowers and vegetation.

In my garden the flowers of  Plumerias are destroyed by its force, to name one.  Your humbleness declares that tropical rains are the worst thing that could happen to many flowers except those corny, steel like in the Heliconaceae, Zingibeceae  and Strelitziaceae families, admired so much by Floridian hordes, with hundreds of garden accolades down here. In my opinion these flowers look better in a glass jar, than in a garden unless you have a one acre farm/space.

Too much of a good thing, all this rain..Mosquitoes multiply with the aid of plenty abandoned structures and rubber tires by the thousands. Blankets, towels, bed sheets, get smelly with the humidity.

I could not survive in one of those countries where it rains for days, weeks and months. Humidity is really unpleasant making the pavement slippery.


Fortunately the soil in me garden is ninety five percent sand, with excellent drainage, otherwise, another would be the story.
Rain is also excellent for the propagation of insects and fungi.


However, this cloudy Maine atmosphere days are nice for photography, planting, and cool sex if you think this last one is as important as news/printed media, films, and infomercials make the gullible believe: to have your pecker longer, thicker and stronger with pills or creams. This in turn satisfies your partner because they like them with those attributes, the fornication lasting longer as bonus.

IN BRIEF

Guanica city in the south of the concrete asphalted isle is my favorite place to vacation. With thirty inches of rain a year, one will rarely encounter the problems mentioned. Besides, I have always been a fan of the desert.


People, down here are not fond of it. For many islanders scarce vegetation is ugly and sterile. Thank god for stupid people. That allows the others, not belonging to that segment to enjoy those scenes, topography, geography, its flora and fauna most of the time without nasty, unwanted children hollering and doing what they do.


I think that is that. Now you go and write or think about virtues and defects of rain. Perhaps it is difficult for most to find the defects since, LIFE is impossible without water, but juathejeck, give it a try.

Bonus

After my ROTHKO days, 
now I am into
the micro short film
Akira Kurosawa era.
Buajaha 
bilingual one.
Check
me out in youtube.


that is that

\

POST VIDEO CLIPS SENSATIONS

I have found the botanical names for 4 plants in my collection in two days! This is rather unusual considering that Passiflora foetida and pallida L. took 18 months until I discovered the New York Botanical Garden web site with Lord Nathaniel Britton illustrations, research and plant idenfication during the 1900 1920's in Puerto Rico along his wife.

The other 3 were mentioned in caribbean botanical review yesterday. But for all loyal readers this one Calathea loeseneri, is from Brazil. One among a few in that family with an impressive light violet flowers, reminding me of bird of paradise. 

Your humbleness has made seven video clips. Some have been shared in a couple of blogs. They reflect my view on the ugly urban reality surrounding me in terms of landscape, architecture and people. I am not to fond of most people. They are too sentimental, unable to take criticism or making an effort to be better.

The sensation after slowly improving some technical issues is of emptiness since once they appear on youtube or the blogs, that is that. There is not much any one can offer as an opinion since the truth does not require elaboration. Ugly or beauty, dumb or smart are probably universal values, considering each culture standards for each.


The writing I do with all known defects in terms of sintax, grammar and else, feels more warmth. Even if no one reads, or a few, with or without comments. It is another kind of trip.


I think I will continue doing both, but the writing deserves more affection than video clips, since it leaves some satisfaction unknown in the other.

That is that.

APPALACHIAN STOCK IN PARADA 27 SANTURCE

ANTIGONUM CAJAN SQUASHES PATRICK BLANC OR VERTICAL/HORIZONTAL GARDENING ISSUES

THE FRENCH botanist Patrick Blanc 'invented' the concept of vertical gardening. Borne in 1953, is 2 years younger than this Caribbean blogger, gardener, humorist, light percussionist, provocative, misanthropist, trend setter, 'writer' and critic.

Three years ago, when I discovered him, I thought, what every juan else did. Juat a cool guy!  But some things were wrong with the portraying of the invention. It took some time, but this never resting gardener, has finally squashed the concept.

If you believe Cristoforo Colombo discovered America, click and skip. Nature discovered vertical gardening, not Monsieur Blanc. Epiphytes are the clue.

Once that is clear, then, the educated/well trained gardener/horticultural practitioner must consider the following requirements to have a healthy vertical garden.  The substrate or fiber/soil should provide  efficient capillary action to allow the nutrient solution/irrigation in a close circuit  and available light for the chosen vegetation to survive and look healthy and cool.

All the above cost money, energy, systematic maintenance and in my opinion could only be pragmatic in the first world, not ours, the other half with 3 billion of starving, without electricity, food, water, a roof, a job, schools, or a future for biped creatures.

Some fools in Florida/Puercorico buy and place their  pots in a milk crate. Later,  they nail them on a wall calling it a vertical garden.  

Antigonum Cajan or yours truly on the contrary, digs five holes in a concrete driveway,  with a chisel and sledge hammer. He plants 7 species of vines from seed, places some wires from the fence to the iron works in the windows, creating, not only a vertical garden up and down the fence, but an horizontal one also. 

Hello Antigonum Cajan, farewell Patrick Blanc,

All the above without significant amounts of money, effort and/or waste of energy, local flora and fauna in focus.The desire and/or will to be better, superior, a feeling that keeps me company shadow like.  But not in absolute terms, I have my flaws in other fields of knowledge.  and others wisdom wise.

That is that.  

BONUS FOR THE FAITHFUL

them photos from the roof

are dedicated to you:

those who agree 

those who do not

known commentators

private ones

and

those who do not understand what the hell is going on

Por que el reino de los cielos

sera para vojotros

esta ehcrito en ese libro goldo.

  

GARDEN VIEWS AT RANDOM

IT HAS been a while since I brought the subject. Today I took some pictures from angles not depicted previously and others known.

The commodities department is looking certainly well: Passiflora, Manihot esculenta,
Taro, Citrus aurantifolia and Capsicum will be the most productive crop so far. Papaya wise, the production went from 17 to 2. 

I reiterate that unless one has a huge family, edible gardening present a problem of  surplus, at least  in my small 'farm'. One is left with the option of giving it away since down here sophisticated networks of exchange do not exist. If they do, your humbleness does not know about them and vice versa.  

IN my view the garden is not a pretty flower here and there, monotonous rows of this or that. It is a whole, thought, planned, designed and kept, with flora and fauna in mind. No chemicals, except glysophate for weeds in concrete cracks and no absurd irrigation. In brief what everyjuan else does blindly, monkey see monkey do.


I have noticed that 8 or 9 blogs about gardening are mostly about pretty flowers. Nothing wrong with that particularly if one thinks it is cool to present macro photos that  nine hundred people have already taken and could be found in the web.

Yours truly prefers to go the other way. After all the garden stinks or not.  With a flower here and there the public can not judge either way.  Aesthetics being subjective show one's grasp regarding composition and innovation.


In the garden plants are relocated as needed. Shade, heat, snails, slugs often rule in the decision. Constant monitoring of health and pest issues are taken into account.


That is why I approach gardening the way I do. It is never a fixed, static installation. The visual, composition is pertinent, however to maintain a healthy vegetation is more important in the long run. 

If any photo tickles your fashion click on either you have it or you do don't for a better resolution.

That is that.